


Everything Comes Back to You

by haatorii



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Adult Losers, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Pennywise (IT), Eddie Kaspbrak Loves Richie Tozier, Gay Eddie Kaspbrak, Gay Richie Tozier, House Cleaning, House Flipping, I still don't know how tagging works, M/M, Mid-30s Losers, Myra isn't a Kaspbrak I just wrote that for the tags, Radio Host Richie Tozier, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, Risk Analyst Eddie Kaspbrak, but Eddie doesn't know that, feed your friends if they're doing hard labor for you for free guys, fuck that clown, no beta we die like men, some book characters will show up to play the roles I assigned them, the author has no idea whatsoever about house flipping or even gardening and landscaping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:55:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 46,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24289270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haatorii/pseuds/haatorii
Summary: After almost 20 years, Eddie goes back to Derry to do a task left to him by his mom.
Relationships: Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Patricia Blum Uris/Stanley Uris, one sided Eddie Kaspbrak/Myra Kaspbrak, past Richie Tozier/Sandy
Comments: 8
Kudos: 23





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My first attempt in writing Reddie please be kind ♥♥ I've been in this part of hell for about 7 months now but I was afraid to write them because there are so many talented writers in this fandom, but I have this fic lying around for almost a year now so I thought, why not give it a shot?
> 
> This fic was supposed to be Destiel. I have all the characters planned out, they already have their roles to play but I realized there are TOO MANY Destiel fics and I want to write something new. So here I am. 
> 
> This, just like everything I have worked on, is unbetad. English is not my first language so please be kind. If you see any grammar inconsistencies (or if you see any 'Sam' in the chapter) please, please, please don't hesitate to tell me so I could correct it.
> 
> Thank you!

It has been over a decade when Eddie is last seen in Derry. To be honest, this is the last place he would want everyone to see him, and yet here he is, feeling the hot June sun on his skin.

He misses home, actually. But home has had too many memories in it and he isn’t sure if he’s ready to face them. He is 70% sure he won’t face them all but fuck it, it’s still fucking scary. It’s as if he’s Ebenezer Scrooge but instead of being visited on Christmas Eve by the ghosts, he is haunted by them every single fucking day, and it’s always the Ghost of the (Christmas) Past.

 _It surely isn’t that bad_ , that’s what he told himself the day he found out he would have to go back to Derry to fix the papers of the house he left years ago.

When he gets off his rented car, he is greeted by greenery. He knew that his late mother had a green thumb, he just doesn’t expect it to be **this** green. The walls are covered with vines and the weeds are standing almost a foot tall, wildflowers and daisies are already sharing pots, dead orchids, yellowed Areca palms and Song of Indias, and (almost) dead snake plants. Succulents that are once purple now turned bright green by the lack of care and overexposure, and a whole lot of other plants Eddie doesn’t know the names, or maybe he once did. Eddie likes succulents but never really have time to care for one. They say succulents are the best plants for busy people but they are wrong. Some of them are quite sensitive. Yes, they’re **easy** to take care, technically, but if you want them to flourish, you have to observe and do a little bit of research.

The place, for the lack of a better word, is a big pile of shit.

Eddie knew Sonia was always a plant enthusiast, but not this much. It seems like he underestimated his mother’s impulsive plant buying.

There’s even a coconut stump on the far right corner of the front lawn for fuck’s sake. Why did she have a coconut stump? Where the fuck did she get that? She lived in fucking Maine!

Ignoring the dried soil particles flying around that he could potentially inhale and get stuck in his lungs, he walks around the lawn. He’s already starting to regret this. It’s okay if he changed his mind he could always ask the family lawyer to do whatever needed to be done and call him if he ever needed anything else. He could ask him to arrange a company to clean the house, have an estate sale for stuff that could still be used, and burn everything else. He wouldn’t have to set foot on this place ever again. But then again his vacation leave has already been approved. He has already spent two days packing his things and traveling. He could do this. He has to do this.

He could start with renovating the house, weed everything, maybe burn the whole fucking place, anything so he could sell it at a good price. Flip the house? Does he even know anything about house flipping? Flipping a house couldn’t be that bad, right? And when he’s done, he could go back to his own place.

He has to finish everything in more or less than 5 months. Any longer than that and it would be difficult to fix the place and do his job at the same time.

\----

The inside is worse than the outside; plants everywhere, stagnant waters in basins full of mosquito larvae, roach eggs, dead rats. There are piles and piles of magazines, stacks of plastic containers with a bunch of stuff inside them, cupboards filled with plastic toys and china, boxes overflowing with books, shelves overflowing with books, flattened cardboard boxes inserted in every nook and cranny. Thick curtains are drawn to a close making the house too hot and humid, and dust everywhere. He couldn’t see everything as he is still on the doorway but it’s too much. And the smell, Jesus the smell is horrible. He should’ve brought a hazmat suit! The fucking place is a death trap. Every corner of the house is a hazard waiting to happen! This isn’t a job for him, this is for the fucking professional.

There’s no doubting it now; his mother was a hoarder. Jesus, he feels his skin crawling and bile stirring inside his stomach, his breakfast threatening to make a reappearance. He has to get away fast! Fuck, fuck fuck! He can’t do this! HE HAS TO GET AWAY!

Eddie runs outside the house, his hand covering his nose and mouth. Fuck! Is this his fault? This is his fault! He left his mom on her own all those years ago because of his what, his feelings? Such utter bullshit! His mom wasn’t like this when he left. She had stuff piling up in the basement, sure, but nothing like this! She was always organized. All their stuff; his baby clothes, garments he outgrew, his sister’s stuff after she ran away, everything that wasn’t needed anymore, all would go to the basement or the trash. Unless she didn’t throw the things she said she’d dispose of. Eddie was not allowed to go to the basement, maybe everything was there? Was his mom already a hoarder when he was still living with her? Is hoarding something that comes with old age? He vaguely remembers the article about hoarding disorder once because he’d seen an episode of ‘Hoarders’ a few years ago.

He badly wants to grab the inhaler in his pocket but it’s been years since he last used it. _I don’t have fucking asthma,_ he says to himself, _I don’t have to use my fucking inhaler_.

He blinks back his tears and collects himself. He has to do this because his sister won’t. He owes it to the two of them. He owes it to his mom since he did this to her, and he owes it to her sister for helping him get away in the first place.

He does a short breathing exercise to calm himself, and with a renewed determination, Eddie walks back inside the house.

\----

Frankly speaking, Eddie does not have any clue what to do. Does he clean the lawn first or the house? Which would be easier to clean? Surely it’s the lawn, but if he does the lawn first, the soil would get stepped on and disturbed destroying his work. Maybe he could do both at the same time? That would save time, right? Okay, it’s final. He’s doing the house and kill the weeds at the same time.

The front lawn is a mess, just like everything else, but the house is a gate to hell. He has to start as soon as he could, possibly tomorrow. He could drop by the hardware to buy PVC gloves, a fuck-ton of herbicide, a hazmat suit, and all the things necessary. He could ask the hardware people. Also, fuck Cassandra for leaving him alone. This is a job for at least five people! He has to look for people who would help him STAT or it would take him longer than 5 months to finish.

“Fuck me,” he says out loud. “I’ll get back to you someday, Sandra.” With the last curse for his sister who’s somewhere in Indonesia, Eddie goes back to the townhouse to drop his things.

Unlike most people, the hardware store was never a place he enjoyed visiting when he was young. It was dark, greasy, filled with sawdust, wires and hoses, the whole place stink of rubber, leather, and adhesive. It was an unpleasant place for him as a child and still an unpleasant place for him as an adult.

He is about to approach a man working by the huge roll of nets when a voice asks behind him. “Hi, how may I help you?”

Eddie almost jumps out of his skin. One of the reasons why he hates hardware stores.

“Uh, yes. I need six pairs of PVC gloves, three gallons of your strongest bleach, pesticides, and herbicides, 5 wire brushes, and your thickest garbage bag. 

The man is tall. He’s taller than him and he isn’t exactly a small man either. He’s wearing a blue plaid shirt and blue jeans. He also looks familiar but he thinks he must be one of his schoolmates before or whatever. The tall man doesn’t seem to recognize him, better leave it like that.

The man whistles, “Wow, that’s a lot of chemicals. Are you gonna kill a rat king covered in weeds?” The tall man asks. Nosy. 

“No, not exactly. But I’m sure I’m gonna kill a bunch of pests and weeds.” He answers curtly. He doesn’t want to be rude but he’s mind is running a thousand miles per hour, and he still has to drive out of town, probably in Portland, to buy some protective gear. There is no way he’ll go back to that place without covering his body from head to toe, so he can’t afford an idle chit-chat right now. He’s too busy for that.

“What kind of weeds grow in your front lawn?”

“I seriously have no idea. Aren’t they all just weeds?”

“Oh no, not all weeds are the same. Some types of weeds leave small tubers under the earth like yellow nutsedge and quickgrass so if you don’t remove them it’ll just grow back after a day or two. And some weeds like ragweeds and dandelions spread seeds around.” The tall man explains, waiting for Eddie to respond, when he hears nothing, he continues. “Do you want to kill everything or do you want to save some plants?” 

“I have several plants I want to save.”

“Oh, that’s cool. We have products for that. Follow me.” The tall man asks Eddie to walk with him to the back. It’s dark and it smelled earthy for some reason. They must have sacks of loams there. The tall man brings him to the tall shelves behind the store.

The tall man faces Eddie again. “Do you remember what the weeds looked like?”

“I really have no idea what they are. I think I saw a dandelion but I’m not really sure.”

“If it’s just general grass, you could use this,” he gives Eddie a gallon of ‘Grazz Gunz’, “It’s a ready-to-use product with 0.48 percent fluazifop-p-butyl. You can use it in any grasses since you don’t know what type of weeds grow in your lawn. Just spray it in the center of the clump and then spray again after seven days. Then after seven days again, and so on. Spray it on a cloudy day, though. The sun might intensify the effect of the herbicide and it might linger in the soil after.” The tall man says.

He has no idea what’s a floozy pop bottle thing. “Oh, thank you. I would certainly keep that in mind.”

“Yeah, no problem. I’m only giving you a gallon because it might not be a suitable herbicide for your lawn. If it is then great, if it’s not you could come back anytime for other brands, we have quite a few.” The tall man gives him a familiar warm smile. Too familiar.

“Yes, I really appreciate it. Thank you very much.”

“Oh, you might want to grab some gas mask, and the PVC gloves you can see it on the way to the counter. You can try them on if you want, to check the fit.”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

“No worries, man.”

Eddie is already on his way to the counter when the tall man stops him again. “Hey, one more thing, if you prefer the more ‘eco-friendly’ way of getting rid of weeds, you could always use vinegar or baking soda. There’s a lot, really. You could look it up on the internet.”

“I would do that. Thank you, again.”

“Spray the vinegar on a sunny day with minimal wind, alright?”

Eddie smiles at the tall man. It’s all he could do after being rude but still being kind to him. He’s really tall and extremely helpful. Also a looker, and **_very_** familiar. He looks so familiar Eddie couldn’t help himself but to ask the tall man when he’s on his way out of the store.

“You look really familiar. Have we met before?”

The tall man gives him a beautiful smile. It’s such a pleasant feeling to be at the receiving end of his smile.

“Actually, yes. You were friends with my brother, but you played with me a couple of times before. You didn’t recognize me so I thought I’d just shut my mouth.”

“I’m sorry, it’s been a long time since I was here.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m Georgie. Georgie Denbrough. You kind of used to hang out in my house when you were like in elementary until high school.”

Georgie Denbrough. Floppy-haired, bright-eyed, tiny Georgie Denbrough. Right. He used to hang out in their house. Georgie was cool. Georgie was good. He was a good friend to him. He has a brother. Shit.

“Oh god, Georgie!”

“Hiya, Eddie!”

Eddie places his equipment gently on the ground to meet Georgie halfway for a hug. “It’s so good to see you, man!” Georgie says.

“You too, Georgie. It’s been so long. How are you? How did you become so tall?” Eddie’s cheeks hurt from smiling too much. He could not believe he forgot what Georgie Denbrough looks like.

“Heh. Same old, same old. I’ve been managing this hardware store for quite a while now.”

“What? No way! You own this place?” He’s aware he’s half yelling now but he doesn’t care. He’s talking to sweet ol’ Georgie!

“Well, technically I own a third. It’s our dad’s but we inherited it after he passed away couple’a years ago.”

“Ah, yeah. Your family owned a hardware store. I’m sorry about your father’s passing.”

“Nah, it’s fine. We’re fine, it’s been like five years already.”

“Still.”

“Enough about me, Eddie. What about you? After you moved out we haven’t exactly heard anything from you.” Georgie claps his shoulders and waits for him to talk. He hesitates.

“I, uh… I’m a risk analyst now. Not here, though, in New York.”

“Wow, that’s helluva drive.”

“Yeah, it was. I’m here because Sandra doesn’t want to work on our house’s papers.”

“Your old house?”

“Yeah, our mom passed away a couple of months ago,” he starts. Georgie interrupted him with a short ‘I’m sorry’. “She transferred the house to our names, but Sandra said I could do whatever I want with it. I wanted to sell it but I didn’t want to assume, so I consulted her about it. She said I could, s’long as I do everything, so here I am.”

“Didn’t she study accounting or something? Sorry, I don’t know, I was too young when she moved out.”

“Law, actually. But she dropped out during her sophomore year to do culinary.”

Georgie gives him an indistinguishable sound then falls silent. The silence is just starting to get uncomfortable when Georgie continues. “I saw the house the other day. That sure looks like a lot of work.”

Eddie is relieved when Georgie changes the subject. He doesn’t really want to talk about himself because he doesn’t know where to start.

“Yeah, it is. That’s why I have no time to waste. I only have a short time to spare.”

“I could help you, you know. I know a bit about renovations and stuff.”

“Oh, that sounds great but I don’t wanna impose.” No no no, he couldn’t ask for his help. Well, he could but he would most certainly get attached and that’s the last thing he wants.

“No, not at all. I’m happy to help. You’re a good friend after all.” Georgie gives him a huge smile and a very convincing face.

His self-control falls apart, “Alright, thanks, Georgie.” he says. This is what he hates about Georgie Denbrough. He could not just say no to that face. He’s probably what now, 27? 28? But he still looks cute as hell. How did he grow so tall, though? Is Bill taller than him now? The last thing he remembers about Bill is them hanging out in their basement, but Bill was sitting on a beanbag so he couldn’t remember if he were taller or shorter than him.

“Great! So, see you tomorrow, Eds?” Georgie is beaming at him again, he couldn’t help but smile back.

“See you tomorrow, Georgie.”

The nickname slips from his attention.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay!

When Eddie gets off his rented car, the gate is open and Georgie is already pulling weeds from the ground.

“Hey, Eddie! I hope you don’t mind I let myself in.”

“No, it’s fine. Thank you for helping me again, Georgie.”

“Nah, don’t mention it. I’m happy to spend time with you.”

Eddie opens the trunk and pulled out the things he bought from the Denbrough Hardware yesterday and the protective gear he bought the next town. He also bought some vinegar, baking soda, snacks, and drinks before going back to the townhouse last night.

It’s a hot day so Georgie tells him to try the vinegar first. They spray in some vinegar and left the weeds alone. Then, they start uprooting the dead ornamental plants and throws away the broken pots. Good thing Sonia Kaspbrak’s front lawn is not as big as child Eddie thought it would be, if it is then adult Eddie would be fucked. Their lawn is small but spacious enough that Eddie and his sister could run around without knocking over some plants. If he knew what he’s doing, he could totally do the renovation alone, but since he knew nothing, Georgie is god-sent.

They take a break when the sun becomes too unbearable to stand under. They order some pizza and the two liters of water inside his cooler are consumed in less than thirty minutes. They talk for a bit, caught up with what’s new in their lives. Georgie and his girlfriend, Milly, which was also Eddie’s friend in high school, just celebrated their 5 years together. They’re already living together and taking care of two dogs. Eddie tells Georgie he recently got his masters in statistics and he’s taking a year off before pursuing his doctorate, and that Sandra finally got hitched with her on-again-off-again girlfriend, Jo. Georgie guffawed when Eddie told him about Sandra’s recent prank on him that included gummy bears, guava-flavored lube, and the biggest dildo Eddie had ever seen.

They go back to work around three in the afternoon, the sun is still hot but finally bearable. They pull out the weeds and place them in garbage bags. Georgie volunteers to take care of them since he’s trying to build a compost pit behind their home and organic fertilizer for their small corn farm. Eddie gives him the weeds gladly.

Georgie goes home around six in the evening, bringing the bags of weeds with him. Eddie, on the other hand, stays for a while to tidy up for the next day. The lawn is still far from being clean, but at least the weeds and the dead plants are long gone. He still has the house to worry about.

\-----

Georgie brings a bunch of marine plywood and some woodworking equipment, saying it’s for the succulents. Eddie thanks him once again and leaves him to his devices. He borrows a hoe and a rake from Mrs. Mendez down the street (she recognized him right away because Sonia kept showing her pictures of them siblings) and went down to business. By the time lunch comes in, the plant boxes for the succulents are done and the lawn is halfway cultivated. They spray the herbicide Eddie bought at the Denbrough Hardware for good measure.

By 1:20, Eddie puts on his protective gear and starts clearing the piles of boxes at the bottom of the stairs and the clutter by the doorway. He finds his old notebooks, rat-chewed comic books, novels that he loved as a child, and other knick-knacks. He places them outside along with his other childhood belongings, mentally reminding himself to donate them at the end of the week.

It’s hot, extremely hot, and humid. He has to take several breaks so as not to pass out in the middle of filth. He manages to move about ten boxes of old things before calling it a day.

\----

Eddie asks Georgie how to revitalize the dead soil. He says he doesn’t know but he knows someone who might have an idea. “It’s… Ben.” Georgie says.

“Ben? Hanscom?” Eddie confirms.

“Yes, Ben. He’s one of the owners actually. Me, Bill, and Ben. I mostly manage it because Ben goes on a business trip sometimes with his architecture gig and Bill writes most of the time.” Georgie explains. He waits for Eddie to say something, but when he stays silent he continues, “I didn’t wanna say anything because I feel like you’ve been avoiding everybody ever since you came back.”

“I’m not avo—”

“I’m not saying you are, but you seem to have a good reason to do it so I kept my mouth shut. Don’t worry I haven’t told any of them that you’re here. Only Milly knows, I swear.” Georgie raises his right palm up.

Eddie lets out a sigh, “I believe you. I’m not avoiding them, I just don’t know if they would want to see me since I left without telling anybody.”

“Psh, nonsense! I’m sure they would be ecstatic to see you, especially Richie!”

Eddie grimaces at the sudden mention of the name. “Yeah, ha ha,” he clenches his butt so hard he feels like he’s going to pull a muscle somehow. “But please, one at a time. I can’t see them all right now.”

“No worries there, pal. Excuse me,” he pulls out his phone and calls Ben. After a few rings, he hears someone pick up and Georgie starts talking. He hears what ‘Ben’ answers after Georgie asks him if he’s busy with his day job but Georgie laughs and gives the Kaspbrak’s address and hangs up. “He’ll be here in 10 minutes,” Georgie says and his hands begin to sweat.

True to his word, 10 minutes later Eddie hears a car outside their tall gate. He looks at Georgie, silently asking if he should answer himself or he’d let Georgie do the talking first. His answer comes with a wave of Georgie’s hand, “You can do this, Eddie,” he says. Eddie walks to the gate.

“Georgie?” Ben calls out from the other side of the gate.

Eddie unlocks the gate, “Hi.” He greets his old friend.

“Oh, hello. I’m Ben. I’m sorry but is Georgie inside? He, uh, asked me to meet him here.” Ben explains. He’s so different from the Ben he knew as a teen. When he left Derry, Ben was chubby, shy, and a little bit taller than he was. Now, the man in front of him is still shy but is extremely fit and towers over him. His jaw might’ve dropped on the ground but he isn’t sure.

“No… no need to apologize, man. He’s inside. Come in.” He invites Ben inside. Ben doesn’t recognize him. It’s okay. If he didn’t know Ben was coming he wouldn’t have recognized him at all. All’s fair, but it stings a little if he’s being honest. He prides himself of his excellent memory and he still knows all the names of all the people that mattered to him in one way or another, so why doesn’t Ben remember him? Was he the only one who thought that their friendship mattered? Was he that unremarkable as a child that one of his childhood friends would just forget him? He didn’t change that much physically. He more or less looks the same as when he last saw Ben.

Eddie gets startled when a hand touches his shoulder, “Um, what?” he asks.

“I said, do I know you? You look very familiar.” Ben scrunches his eyebrows. Clearly scanning his memory of his face. Eddie smiles at him.

“It’s me, man. It’s Eddie.” He finally says. It’s unfair to subject poor, sweet Ben to his doubts. It’s his fault that Ben forgot about him, anyway.

“OH EDDIE! OH MY GOD, IT’S YOU!” Ben’s booming voice filled the enclosed space. He gives Eddie a big hug to lift him from the ground and spin him around. It’s ridiculous he feels like crying. Eddie returns his hug just as eagerly. “Oh man, oh man, oh man! Welcome home, Eddie! I missed you so much! Oh my god! Everyone will be so surprised once they know you’re here!” He drops Eddie to fish out his phone but Eddie protests.

“No, no, please, Ben. Not yet,” He holds Ben’s arm.

“Really? Why? Aren’t you excited to see everyone?” Ben gives him a look resembling a puppy in a box by the road. Jesus, why does he look so sad?

“I am, I am! But I’m just not ready yet. But don’t worry, I’ll definitely see them before I go, and I will be here for a few months at least.”

“Do you swear to see everyone before you go and not pull your stunt years ago?”

He nods his head, “Yes, I swear.”

Eddie and Georgie ask Ben what to do to revitalize the soil since he doesn’t really have a budget to hire a landscaper or whoever that does lawns. Ben advises them to turn several inches of soil by using backhoe or spade, or better if they have power tiller.

“I only have a spade.” Eddie points at the spade leaning the wall.

“I don’t have a power tiller but I have a backhoe and spade at home,” Georgie says.

“I don’t have either of the three, I just borrow a spade or backhoe from them when I need it.” Says Ben.

“Let me go home for a while and I’ll get both,” Georgie suggests then goes back to his car and drives away.

Eddie catches Ben’s eyes looking at him, “What?”

“Nothing, buddy. I’m just happy you’re here.” He pulls Eddie for another tight hug. Eddie’s eyes sting.

“Me too.”

Georgie gets back a few minutes later with an old spade and a rusty backhoe. He gives a pair of gloves to Ben which he gladly accepts and grabs the backhoe.

“Ben, you don’t have to do this, man. You’ve already helped me with your soil revitalizing talents,” he frantically says. It’s one thing to ask your childhood friend that you’ve never seen for almost twenty years of something really simple, but it’s another thing if he grabs a backhoe and helps you with it.

“It’s no problem, Eddie. I don’t mind. I don’t have anything to do today, or for the next several weeks. I’m on vacation.” Ben wears the work gloves and starts to walk at the end of the lawn.

“Are you just saying that so I won’t complain? Because I would still complain either way. It’s my job not yours.”

“It’s fine, Eddie,” Georgie interrupts. “If Ben’s would help us, we could finish the lawn faster then we could start with the house properly.”

Georgie has a point but Eddie doesn’t want to back down. “Guys, seriously. You don’t have to do this with me. Georgie, you have a hardware store to manage,” he looks at Ben, “Ben, you have a more important job. I can do this on my own.”

“The thing is, you don’t have to, Eds,” Ben says, gently. “We’re your friends, and we haven’t seen you in almost two decades. It’s worth throwing my back for if it meant hanging out with you again.” He winks at him.

Eddie feels his tears coming so he quickly turns his back and pretends to wipe his sweat with his shirt sleeves. It’s been so long since he last heard that nickname. He had been Ed or Edward for far too long that he actually missed being called ‘Eds’ by the people who really mattered to him. He blinks back his tears and gets his shovel. “Okay. I understand. Thank you, guys. Truly.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ngl, writing this is hard but I'm doing my best. I'm already in the third chapter and I hope I finish this before my brain shuts down and refuses to write again for a couple of weeks/months.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An update? On a Tuesday?
> 
> UPDATE 20/05/31: In the previous edit in this chapter, Bev slaps Eddie and ao3 user Wtfslap pointed out that I did not use a trigger warning at the beginning of the chapter. They also pointed that it's a horrible fandom trope. I'm not gonna lie, that slipped out of my mind so I'm sorry. I will change it. I love Beverly Marsh so much so I'm going to do better by her

Eddie, Georgie, and Ben turn the dead soil together. The lawn isn’t that big so it only takes them two days to finish the front and the back lawn. Eddie buys a few sacks of compost soil from the hardware and Georgie and Ben helps him, along with the hardware employees, Sam and Calvin, place it on the lawn. After deliberate research and suggestions from Ben, they decide to plant zoysia grass since it thrives on a hot climate and doesn’t die in winter. It won’t look pretty in the winter but it definitely won’t die when Derry becomes a giant freezer. The owner of the nursery, Andrea, gave them discounts for the zoysia plugs since she like Georgie and Eddie reminds her of her dearly departed uncle (bless his soul).

They pull out a few new weeds from the newly cultivated soil and eat pizza for lunch. Ben and Georgie start building a small tool shed at the back of the house while Eddie puts on his protective gear and ventures the house once more. They finish quite a lot that day. Eddie thanks the both of them once more and they go on their separate ways for the night.

Eddie gets to the house a tad bit earlier than usual because Georgie texted him last night that he couldn’t come and Ben would be late as well. The new products they’ve ordered a month before just arrived so they have to do inventory. Eddie told him that it’s fine and he could manage a day without both of them. Georgie, however, assured him that there will be someone to replace them for the day.

Eddie starts the day by checking the newly placed compost soil for weeds. After finding a few and pulling them out, he goes to the mini shed that Ben and Georgie started and picks up where they left off yesterday. He’s starting to get in the zone when somebody called out.

“Hello?”

It’s already nine in the morning, Eddie doesn’t hear it at first then he feels like someone is calling out over the loud music he’s playing and he swears he hears a car running its engine. He takes a short break and goes out of the shed.

“Yes?” he calls out.

“I’m the one Georgie sent out to help.” The voice is a bit muffled from outside the gate.

“Oh, okay.”

He opens the gate and sees a man. The sun is shining brightly to his eyes so he couldn’t open it for long.

“Hi,” he says, “I’m Eddie.”

“Eddie… Eddie Kaspbrak?” The man asks.

“Uh, yes?” He’s still squinting his eyes from the sun behind the man.

“Oh shit, it’s you! Oh my, it is you!” The stranger hugs Eddie.

“Uh, hi. I can’t really see you from this angle. Why don’t you go inside?” he taps the man’s shoulder and walks backward, careful not to lose his balance.

He closes the gate and gets a good look at the man in front of him, he smiles.

“Hi… Stan.”

“Eddie!” Stan leans in for a hug which Eddie reciprocates. He’s become a hugger in a matter of days. This place is really changing him.

He missed Stan so much. They’ve been attached to the hip, the four of them, their whole childhood and adolescence. Stan was always their voice of reason. When the other two would fuck around the neighborhood and Eddie, too, would get pulled in their latest shenanigan, Stan was always there to make sure they don’t get in trouble while still having fun.

“When did you come back?” Stan asks, interrupting his thoughts. Dangerous thoughts.

“A week ago. I’m fixing the house and then I’m selling it.” He replies immediately.

“Really? Why? You should just move back here. It’s been so long. Tell you what,” he says.

“What?”

“Don’t interrupt me. Tell you what, why don’t I message the other losers so we could hang out this evening, yeah?”

“I don’t think—”

“Aw, come on! It’ll be fun! It’s been so long, Eddie. Please?” Stan pleads. He almost gives in but remembers that he couldn’t see them. Not yet.

“Once they know you’re here I’m sure everyone will be there.” Stan whips his phone out and starts typing.

Eddie feels his knees weaken. Not yet. Not yet. He’s not ready yet. He has to make an excuse. Any excuse. Before he could see them. “Stan, please,” he says weakly.

Stan, bless him, figures out that he’s in distress. “Eddie, what’s wrong? Why don’t you want to see the others?”

“I… I don’t know. I promise I will see everyone before I go, but please, not yet.”

Stan looks at him deeply, probably considering Eddie’s request. “Okay. I won’t tell the others yet.”

“Thank you, Stan.” Eddie hugs Stan again. He missed Stan so much. He missed his tight but reassuring hugs.

Stan releases him to finally look at him again. “You have to tell me everything about you now. What you’re doing can wait.”

And he does.

He learns that Stan got married 7 years ago to a woman he met from college named Patty and that they own the local restaurant. He also owns a small accounting firm in Derry.

“Wow, you own two businesses? One’s a restaurant at that! That’s so cool, man. I’m so proud of you.” He says. Stan gives him an earnest smile.

They finish building the toolshed at the end of the day. Eddie says goodbye to Stan and he goes back to the townhouse.

After he’s taken a shower and eaten his take out, he lies on the bed and thinks about his friends. Three of them have already seen him back. It won’t take too long now for the other four to find out he’s back in town. He wants to see them too, but he doesn’t want to be bombed with questions he can’t answer (like why he left) so he wants to take everything slow. Meet them one at a time, if possible. He still has 19 weeks left, surely he’ll find the time and opportunity to see them, right? He figures sooner or later, he has to tell everyone, or at least Ben, Stan, and Georgie, about why he ran away a few days before graduating high school. But does he have to? Must he confess the motive to his friends about his sudden change of plans all those years ago? They promised not to separate, codependent as they are, from each other, then one day he’s riding shotgun on his sister’s car en route to New York.

Deciding nothing, he checks his email for any work-related emails. He double-checks a report sent to him by a subordinate and sends a few emails. He closes his laptop when he’s done and makes an alarm for tomorrow.

“Hello? Stan? Are you there?” A man with a deep voice calls from outside. Stan and Ben visibly tenses, Eddie is confused. “Hello? Stan, I know you’re there. I went to the restaurant and Patty said you’re here.”

“Shit,” Stan says, putting his paintbrush down and brushing the nonexistent dirt from his pants. Ben follows him with his eyes in which Eddie mouths ‘who the fuck is that?’ to him. He bites his lip then shrugs.

Eddie puts down a box he’s been carrying on the ground and starts to walk to the gate. “Eddie, no!” Ben runs after Eddie but he’s too late.

“Stan? Who is it?” he asks Stan who’s holding the gate open just enough to fit half his body through. He reaches out to open it further.

“Hey, no!” Stan protests but Eddie ignores him. He is then face-to-face with, undoubtedly, Mike Hanlon. “Fuck,” Stan whispers.

“Mi —”

Mike lifts him from the ground and hugs him tightly. “Eds,” Mike whispers, his head tucked in his neck.

They stand there hugging for Eddie feels like hours. Oh how he missed Mike’s giant hugs. He starts to squirm (probably) a few moments later, he’s too sweaty and dirty from rummaging through his mom’s stuff to stay in Mike’s clean button up-covered chest. Mike lets him go.

“How long have you already been here? Why didn’t you call us? Are you back for good? How’ve you been?” Mike asks consecutively.

“Oh fuck. I, uh, got here more than a week ago,” shit, shit, he can’t answer the second question, “I’m just cleaning up the house then I’m selling it.”

“I heard about your mom. I’m sorry, Eds.”

He’s kind of getting tired hearing ‘I’m sorry's from people. “Thanks, man. Appreciate it.”

Eddie quickly goes around his schedule for the day inside his head. Ben and Stan are technically done with the shed, he and Georgie could stop for the day. He has time to catch up with for a while with Mike. “Come on in. It’s hot out here and we have chicken wings and lemonade inside.”

“Are you back for good? You didn’t answer my question earlier.” Mike bites into his wing.

“No, I’m just renovating the house, sell it, and then go back to New York.” He explains

“He’s a _huge_ risk analyst now, or whatever that is,” Stan adds, rolling his eyes.

“Good ol’ Derry not good enough for you now, Eds?”

“I didn’t say that, I just have a lot left in New York.”

“Whatever you say, Eds.” Mike laughs. “Listen, why don’t we call the others tonight? We could hang out like we used to.”

“Already tried that,” Ben says, “he doesn’t want to go.”

“I told you imma fucking go, just not right now.” He retorts.

“If you’re worried about…” Ben's eyes shifting from Stan to Mike as if silently communicating, “Certain… someone, he’s on a company retreat until Monday.”

Stan makes an agreeing sound. “Yeah, that’s right. And I bet Bill’s not doing anything these past few days except look at the blinking cursor of his computer so we I’m confident we could reel him in and do some heavy lifting.”

“That’s a great idea! What do you say, Eddie?” Ben looks at him expectantly, Mike and Stan look at him expectantly.

“Fuck the three of you. Can I at least fucking think about it tonight?”

“We don’t expect any less, Eddie.” Ben grins at him.

They gather in Stan’s restaurant Sunday evening. Everybody he’s friends with in elementary and high school is there, which is to say ‘not a lot’, but all the people who matter are there (with some exceptions, of course). Georgie brings Milly, Eddie finally meets Patty, their high school friend Bradley, even Don and Adrian who were a year below them come to celebrate Eddie’s return. Ben and Mike told him they’d come in a bit later with Bev and Bill so as not to surprise them that much.

Bev and Bill, with Ben and Mike, enter the restaurant when all the food has been served. Bev slides the glass door from the hall reserved for special occasions and the chatters slowly die. Eddie and Bev lock eyes together.

“Bev,” Eddie stands up. Beverly walks directly to him and swats him on his right arm. “Ow! what the fu—” he starts to whisper, then Bev hugs him tight.

“Fuck you! Fuck you, Eddie Kaspbrak! I fucking hate you!” she says wetly on his neck as she tucks her face in. Eddie feels her tears soaking up the thin fabric of his shirt. Eddie kisses what part of Bev’s head he could reach without dislodging her head from his neck.

Bev’s cries dissolved into small sobs and finally she removed herself from Eddie’s neck to look at him properly. Eddie cradles her head in his palms and kisses her forehead. “I missed you so fucking much, Eds.” She sniffs.

“I missed you so fucking much too, Bev.” Eddie hears another sniff and looks behind Bev. He sees Bill wiping moisture from his eyes. He smiles at his old friend, opening his arms at him. Bill straightaway runs in his arms and hugs them both tight.

“Ow, Bill. You’re crushing me.” Bev says, trapped between Bill and Eddie. She wiggles out of them to let the two boys hug. She wipes her snot and tear-streaked face with a handkerchief from her back pocket. “Good thing I didn’t wear mascara tonight, eh?” She looks at Ben.

With that, the awkwardness hanging in the room finally dissipated. “Let’s talk later, alright?” Bill whispers to him then goes to sit down in his chair. Bev does the same beside Ben.

The whole hall is loud with stories and laughter, and for the first time since he left, Eddie’s heart is full. He’s surrounded with (almost) all the people who matter in his life, he’s eating good food without thinking if he’s allergic to it, and they’re not upset at him anymore for leaving.

“I propose a toast,” Bev says, “to the Losers, and the honorary losers in this table.” They all cheer and clink their glasses and bottles to everyone they can reach.

By 11 PM, the others have gone home already except for the 7 of them. They’re still catching up over some beer and leftover food from the feast. They let Eddie ask them questions and in return they ask him.

“Wait, wait, wait, Eddie, are you married?” Bill asks, taking a swig from his beer.

“Oh no, not yet,” he laughs.

“So there’s a future Mrs. Kaspbrak waiting in New York, huh.” Bev tickles him a little bit which has him almost jumping from his char.

“No, no, not like that! You guys!”

“Future Mr. Kaspbrak?” Mike adds.

“Really, no. None like that,” Eddie sips from his wine glass, “Enough about me, what about you Ben and Bev? When did you get married?”

“Oh no! We’re not yet married!” Bev squeals while Ben blushes furiously. “We’ve only had a few dates but we’ll see where it goes.” She winks at Ben and leans in to give him a kiss on the cheek, which only makes his ears go impossibly redder. They all laugh at Ben. “Stop, you’re embarrassing him!”

“What about you, Bill?” Ben diverts the attention to him, “Anything we’d like to know?”

“Uh, my sixth b-book is already in its final d-draft?” he cautiously answers.

“None of those books of yours! What about you and your agent, Susan?” Patty excitedly asks.

“Ah, S-Susan? She and I b-broke up last year. I’m s-seeing someone else now.” He answers, in which everybody simultaneously asks ‘who?’ like a group of owls in the middle of the forest.

“A-Audra… Phillips,” He sheepishly answers. Almost everybody erupts into cheers and hollers, Ben even slaps Bill’s shoulders, Eddie again asks, “Who?”

“Audra Phillips!” Bev says, like it’s an answer to Eddie’s question. “She’s a famous actress! She starred in one of Bill’s movies!”

“Oh wow, Bill, never thought you had it in you!”

“I don’t, Eddie. Actually she came up to me and asked me out.”

“Nice. Not afraid to get what she wants,” Patty says. She pokes Stan’s side, “You remember when I did that, babylove?”

It’s Stan’s turn to blush, “Stop it, they don’t need to hear that.” He smiles at her and pecks a kiss on her lips.

“Aw, come on! Tell us! Tell us! Tell us! Tell us!” Bev encourages everyone to chant and pound the table, which they do.

“Alright, alright, geez! Keep your voices down, it’s almost midnight!” Stan warns everyone and proceeds to tell the story of how they met up until how they got engaged.

“That’s such a sweet fucking story, man. I could almost cry.” Eddie teases, wiping fake tears from his eyes.

They continue talking when Mike’s phone rings. He excuses himself from the group and answers the phone on the other side of the glass door. Eddie can’t hear what he’s saying and who he’s talking to because of the noise but Mike keeps looking at them, then around the empty restaurant, then back to them again. He puts his phone back to his pocket then takes off. He comes back five minutes later.

“Sorry about that,” Mike says. Bill leans back to whisper something to Mike and the taller man nods. Bill sits properly again. Eddie catches Mike and Bills’ eyes and he raises his eyebrows, hopefully, his face relays the message ‘what’s going on?’ to them. Mike smiles and shakes his head as if to say nothing, don’t worry about it.

Eddie is about to ask Mike about it when Bev asks him **THE** question, “Where did you run off, Eddie?”

“I uh… I got a scholarship. In NYU. They contacted me a week before graduation, and I thought it would be too much of a waste to let go so I went there. And Sandra encouraged me to go. To be closer to her,” He answers. It isn’t a lie, but it’s not the whole truth either. He doesn’t want the pitying looks his friends would surely give him if he tells the truth. And that was 17 years ago, he’s over it. But just because he’s over it doesn’t mean he could finally talk about it. There are things better left in the past.

“And you didn’t even think to contact us? For more than 10 years?” Stan says. God, he hates it when he’s right.

“I’ve been… busy,” he winces in his words. _You’ve been fucking busy for almost twenty years? Who the fuck are you kidding, Kaspbrak?_

“Busy for almost 20 years? You think we’re stupid we can’t handle the truth, Eddie?” Bill says. Mike instantly whispers ‘hey’ and rubs his hand across Bill’s back.

The whole table is silent.

“But you’re not gonna leave without a word again, right? You’ll keep in touch?” Mike says, saving him from the awkwardness and guilt. God bless Mike.

“Yes! I’m not, I’m not gonna leave without telling you guys!” His eyes dart around the room to his friends, to see their reaction to his promise. Bev looks at him with hopeful eyes, Stan with fondness. They forgive him. They forgive him and he’s not going to betray them again.

Bev stands up to give him a hug again, then Stan, Bill, soon everyone’s hugging him, including Patty. “I love you all, guys. Including you, Patty.”

“I love you too, Eddie, even if we literally just met,” Patty says. They all laugh and give each other words of affection one more time before going back to their seats.

By 1:30 AM, they all help Stan and Patty load up the dirty dishes in the dishwashers and wipe the tables. Eddie and Mike mop the floor to get the stickiness off of it after Georgie spills his Sprite early in the evening, the others hand-wash the plates that couldn’t fit in the dishwashers. They finish cleaning around 2 AM.

“Eddie, where are you staying? You’re not gonna drive, right?” Patty asks.

“Oh no, I’m still buzzed and it’s way past my bedtime now. If I drive I might fall asleep behind the wheel,” he answers “I’m staying at the townhouse. It’s a short walk, don’t worry about it.”

“Why don’t we walk you back?” Bev offers, “My house is in the same way and Ben is staying for the night.”

“Thanks that would be great.” They say goodbye to Stan, Patty, Bill, and Mike, with the other three promising to help him the next day. Ben and Bev offer to help him too. He hugs them then goes inside the townhouse.

Everything went better than expected, he decides. They weren’t disappointed with him anymore, they’re not mad at him for leaving anymore. That’s all that matters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing is coming along but not as well as the Solangelo one I'm working on, but I'll write as much as I can. Most of the story's plot has been planned so I have no plans of abandoning this.
> 
> Tell me what you think!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may have hit my head a couple of times on the wall to make this chapter.
> 
> This is extremely short because this is a "filler" chapter, so I will probably post the next chapter sometime next week and then post again on Saturday. It depends, really, but the 5th chapter is coming along great!

“Eddie, why are you renovating the house?” Bev asks as she pours baking soda on a patch of weed that’s growing on the revitalized soil. She’s wearing a large hat that almost covers her entire face.

Eddie loads the boxed baby clothes he found in the living room on the trunk of his rental car, “I’m going to sell it,”

Bill follows him, carrying another box, “Why don’t you move back in? Why do all this work for some stranger? Is it yours?”

“No, it’s mine and Sandra’s.”

“Then it’s technically yours,” Bev says. She puts down her gardening shovel and helps the boys pack the remaining boxes.

“It kind of is, actually. She told me I could do whatever I want with it.”

“As I have said, why don’t you just move back in?”

“I don’t know guys. I mean I have my job there. I just renewed my lease a few months ago, and I’m up for a promotion. There are quite a lot of things I’m leaving there if I move back in. Not to mention Sandra some —”

“Is it because of him?” Bev asks. Eddie stops in his tracks. Bill is too.

Motherfucker. “Uh, the fuck are you talking about?” he chuckles nervously. It isn't that hot but he notices the sweat forming on the back of his neck. He hopes it’s enough to fool them, especially Bev.

“We’re not dumb, Eddie. Bill sometimes is but not all the time,” she says. Bill swats her arm. “I’m not going to force you to say anything if you’re not yet ready. But just so you know, I was there too.”

Bill looks at her, confusion clear on his face. She didn’t say anything. Good, Eddie thinks, but it’s bad that Bev knows. And now Bill knows his NYU story was not completely true. That something else happened that made him leave and never come back.

They resume loading boxes in silence.

Eddie returns from Goodwill an hour later. He finds his friends, in the backyard, hunched over to the ground placing zoysia plugs in small holes.

“Hey, Eds!” Bill greets, nose dripping with sweat from his temples. Stan, Bev, Bill, and Georgie greeting him as well. Mike visited earlier to help a little bit then went back to the library because he couldn’t stay, unlike the others.

“I brought pizza and beer,” he moves gardening equipment to make room for the pizza, “let’s eat before it gets cold!”

They all groan as they gently stand up from their positions, with Eddie smiling the whole time they do. Even Georgie, who is relatively young, is groaning. God, they are old.

They eat under the patio umbrella that Stan brought one day, a refuge from the angry June sun. Ben asks about Eddie’s plans with the house. The decoration, furniture, if they’re going to remodel the bathroom. Whether to change the floorboards, and whether to do the same for the walls. Naturally, Eddie has A LOT of questions since he has been a city boy for almost as many years as he had lived in Derry. But Bill and Georgie help him understand some terms he hasn’t heard before.

In the end, Eddie acquired a new skill in theory. Renovating the house won’t be for a few weeks, he decides. He didn’t know when he decided to go ahead with the lawn first but at least they’re almost done with it. All that’s left is to buy some ornamental plants. Probably a few orchids, some flowering plants, and definitely citronella plants. He will visit Mike in the library one day to find plants that are suitable for his wants.

“Maybe I’ll buy one just like this,” he says, looking at Stan’s large patio umbrella.

“You should. It would look good in here,” Stan agrees. “You could put it over there once the grass has spread.” He points at the far left corner of the yard.

“Huh, that would look good.” He drinks the rest of his beer.

Eddie could see from his peripheral vision that Bev is watching him. Just like what she had always done when she wants to know something but doesn't want to ask directly. It's not malicious, but more in a supportive way. She's extremely perceptive it's almost eerie. He knows what Bev is thinking, though. But as much as he wants to assure her he’s fine, he doesn’t want to talk about it.

Letting go of grudges that is holding one back is spectacular, but only if one could talk about it. And Eddie Kaspbrak does not talk about past grievances. It doesn’t matter anymore, it’s been 17 years. He is over it. He is over him.

Over the next few days, the five of them (at times 4 or 6) have been busy looking for plants that would be perfect for the garden. After their research, Eddie insisted on citronella plants and orchids, so they went ahead and bought those first. They placed the orchids they bought to the rack Ben and Bill made so they won’t take too much space. They put the citronella in terra cotta planters beside the front porch steps.

Every Sunday, Patty comes in to bring food for everyone and help for a few hours.

Mike, Ben, and Bill made a couple of racks and planters for the plants they have bought.

Eddie, Bev, and Stan had sorted and donated half of the boxed clutter on the first floor.

Eddie almost had to reach in and grab his inhaler a couple of times while sorting through his mother’s stuff. But he pushed through, even though that meant crying his eyes out while Bev held him and Stan rub circles on his shoulders. The other Losers present heard the commotion and rushed inside to find them sitting on the floor, unspeakable filth all around them. They didn’t ask questions, Ben and Bill went inside, protective gear be damned, and trapped them three for a hug.

Sometimes they drink after a long day of cleaning and hammering and digging, Eddie’s treat, of course. It’s all he could do since his friends do not want to be paid for their labor. They say spending time with him is enough. They say he could pay them back by calling them at least thrice a week when he gets back to New York. And that he should come back to spend the holidays with them. Eddie promises he would. Nothing could stop him from spending time with the friends he left for so long.

Except maybe one.

By the time Eddie’s first month back in Derry has ended, his front and back lawns are almost done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> talk to me on [tumblr](https://haatorii.tumblr.com/ask)!
> 
> Eddie gets a tad dramatic on the 5th chapter lol


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have recognized my errors and it was not my intention at all. I already changed it but I hope I won't slip up again. I love Bev so much and I will never intentionally do dirty of her.
> 
> A few warnings before you start reading though, a little bit of spoiler but I think this is important; Eddie spaces out early in the chapter. He kind of dissociated but not that much. I mean, he drives off without warning and comes back a few hours later with only a few memories of what happened. I know that's kind of a sensitive topic for some, so I'm just saying beforehand. Nothing bad happens to him, I promise.
> 
> Also, let's pretend July 15th is the end of the tax season.

Ben brings his licensed electrician friend with him to check the wirings of the house. Bill, on the other hand, apparently has a plumbing license after a weird year of being so into plumbing for one of his characters. Though the said character was removed in the final draft, Bill went ahead and finished his plumbing certificate. Now, he is upstairs checking all the pipes for clogs, rusts, and broken stuff that should be replaced.

Beverly could not come because of the new designs she’s making. It is tax season so Stan has been busy (he offered to do Eddie’s but he said it’s taken care of), and Georgie’s manning the hardware store because Calvin’s wife is in labor. Mike, on the other hand, is coming later to help. After all, it’s summer and people are more interested in enjoying the outdoors than stay in the library. He tells Eddie it’s fine since his library assistant will be staying to help the patrons.

Eddie absentmindedly bags every plastic wrapper he can find on every surface. Every bit of plastic lying around goes inside the garbage bag. He is alone, covered in sweat from the protective gear he still insists on wearing, listening to music from the speakers that Ben brought. It is connected to Bill’s Spotify account since all he has on his phone are podcasts and audiobooks. Eddie considers getting his own premium account since it is cheap.

Few songs and a volume increase later, he is a tad bit satisfied with his progress. The old lounge room is now free of furniture and a large portion is ‘clean’ enough for them to sit on the floor.

He hears a muffled murmur and pounding from upstairs. _Clang clang_ _clang._ The sound of wrench on pipes clanging and banging and loud music merging inside the house. _Bang bang bang_. Ben and his friend yelling, or maybe talking loudly, Eddie cannot know for sure. The thud of their feet on wood. _Bang bang bang_. The shrill guitar riff of Queen’s Killer Queen on speakers. _Bang bang bang_. Bill’s frustrated grunts. _Bang bang bang._

His head hurts. He drops his garbage bag and leans on the wall.

_Bang. Bang. Bang._

“Eddie?” A voice from above asks, concern. “Are you there?”

_Bang. Bang. Bang._

His head is pounding.

“Eddie!”

He snaps his head up.

“Eddie, are you alright?” Ben asks.

With vision swimming, he tries to focus on Ben’s concerned face. “What?”

“Are you okay? You look pale.” Ben puts his hand on his forehead, tugging off the non-woven material covering his head.

“No… I’m. I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. It’s probably just the heat or something.”

“You’re really pushing yourself, Eddie. There’s no need to rush,”

Eddie doesn’t realize he is sitting on the floor until Ben helps him up. He grabs Ben’s arm as the blood rushes back to his head.

“You worry me, Eddie,” Ben says.

_You worry me, Eddie-bear. You always make me worry._

“I’m fine, Ben. No need to baby me.” He answers sternly.

“I’m—”

_Bang bang bang bang bang!_

Ben and Eddie’s heads turn to the direction of the sound.

Another banging.

“Let me get that,” he murmurs as he walks out of the house.

Eddie opens the door and welcomes the cold air from outside. His vision is still bright around the edges so he carefully walks to the gate. The banging gets louder and louder as he approaches.

His head hurts, he couldn’t see properly. The sun is dead set on burning his eyes off, and it is so fucking hot his shoes are practically melting off, plus the person on the other side seems determined to permanently dent his gate.

“Wait, goddammit!” he yells as he opens the heavy-duty bolt latch. He always hated that thing. Maybe he could consult Ben of the benefits of removing the whole goddamn thing off the property.

“What the fuck do you—”

“Hi there, Spaghetti. I have been knocking for like an hour and I’m sweating my balls off out here. Could you maybe let me in before yell at me?” The stranger—no, Richie—says.

Eddie’s chest hurt. His head throbs.

Richie walks past him, entering the property and taking refuge on the porch.

Eddie can’t form any words. Is this a dream? A delusion? Must be it.

_He should not be here. He doesn’t know I’m here._

Eddie had read once that extreme heat could lead to hallucination. That is what happens to people if they get stranded in the desert. Or was that hypothermia? No, a person thinks they are hot when they are in the last stages of hypothermia, which is why people remove their clothes and die faster of hypothermia.

Richie screams Bill’s name as he enters the house, his voice competing with the music and the consistent clanging of Bill’s wrench.

Eddie opens the gate further and gets inside his car that is sitting in the open garage. He still feels like he took a blow to the head, but he’s not going to pass out any time soon. He turns the ignition and drives away.

The cold air from his car’s air conditioning cools his body somewhat. But he still feels a bit woozy so he grabs a paracetamol from his glove compartment and dry swallows it. He gags, the bitter taste lingering his throat. After a while, the pill kicks in and he realizes he’s still wearing the filthy protective gear from earlier. He scrambles to take it off, not bothering to pull over to make it easier. He throws it in the backseat.

The road stretches in front of him, his mind empty, driving as if on autopilot.

Eddie finds himself in a McDonald’s drive-through. He wants to leave but a minivan behind him prevents him from doing so. Resigned, he orders a double cheeseburger, fries, and a chocolate shake. He aimlessly drives again and parks his car a few minutes later on the side of the road. He picks up his double cheeseburger and digs in. He feels terrible. From sweat, from the bitter medicine that he could still taste at the back of his throat, from the sudden onslaught of feelings. Might as well stuff himself full of processed food with too many preservatives, right?

He shucks the burger out of his window after two bites.

Realizing he literally littered, he let out a deep, frustrated sigh and gets off the car. He picks up his trash and puts it inside a plastic bag he keeps in his glove compartment. He’ll throw it away properly later.

He grabs the fries from the paper bag and starts munching on it. It’s still disgusting. Hot, oily, and definitely packed full with preservatives and chemicals that should **not** be consumed. He could literally make fries that are healthier than what he’s eating, and only with 3 ingredients. But he has been eating deep-fried foods at least 3x a week so whatever.

He empties the chocolate shake in record time, even dipping a few of the fries in it, something he hasn’t done in over a decade. He brushes imaginary crumbs off of himself, puts his garbage back in the paper bag. He gives a scream to the empty road and drives away again.

Eddie does not know where he is but the roads are familiar enough, so he drives himself back to Derry.

The gate is still wide open when he arrives and Ben’s car is missing.

As if sensing him, Bill emerges from the house, eyes wide with worry. Eddie fixes his gaze at him. Bill runs to him and hugs him tight.

“You motherf-fucker!” He stutters, “You s-scared us!”

“I, uh,” Eddie awkwardly hovers his arms around Bill but he finally hugs him after a few moments. “I went to McDonald’s,” he says softly.

Eddie feels a strange calmness inside him. Like driftwood in the sea. He figures it is probably the shock coming from seeing the person you vowed to never see again. Who is he kidding? When he came across Georgie he knew it was only a matter of time before he saw him again. He had been putting off meeting all his friends that he forgot he only had one more friend to see.

Bill pulls himself off of Eddie and presses something on his phone. He puts it on his ear and Eddie hears a voice after a few seconds.

“Yes, he’s here,” Bill says, “No, he’s f-fine but he looks s-s-s, fuck, he looks ill.”

Eddie hears several voices right before Bill hangs up.

“Come on, Eds. Let’s go to the back.” Bill puts his arm around Eddie’s shoulders, guiding him inside the property.

“What about my car?”

“It’s fine. Mike and the others will be here in a few. I’ll ask them to park your car inside.”

Satisfied with his friend’s answer, Eddie nods and walks with Bill inside.

Bill sits Eddie in one of the chairs under Stan’s umbrella. The sun, though still hot, is not that scorching anymore. Bill hands him a bottle of water which he drinks immediately, remembering the ungodly amount of junk food he had consumed earlier.

Bill’s estimation was right. Not even 10 minutes after Bill dropped the call, Eddie hears several feet running closer.

“Hi guys,” he says sheepishly when they emerge.

Stan pulls him in his arms, forcing him to stand up, “You little shit!”

Stan lets him go only for Beverly to follow suit, “I told you don’t fucking leave us again!”

“I didn’t!” He protests.

Beverly lets him go then gives him to the three other men waiting for a hug.

“Georgie, what are you doing here? I thought you’re needed at the store?” he asks.

“We were looking for you, dumbass. Sam’s there so it should be fine without me for a couple of hours.” He gives Eddie’s keys back and hugs him.

“How long was I gone?” he asks, suddenly curious when he sees Mike.

“It’s already 4 o’clock, Eds,” Mike answers. “You were gone for almost 6 hours.”

“And you left your phone beside Bill’s,” Ben says.

Oh.

That is probably why he went to McDonald’s. Did he almost went back to New York? He couldn’t remember. If he was gone for 6 hours, he must have driven for 3 hours, ate, and then drove back for another 3 hours. If his internal map is correct, did he drive all the way to New fucking Hampshire?

“Oh boy. I feel dizzy,” he says, weakly. The others instantly give him room to breathe and help him sit back down. “I’m sorry I left before you got here, Mike.”

“It’s alright, buddy. At least now you’re home.”

_Home._

Yeah, he is home.

Bill drives him back to the townhouse in his car, with Mike following behind with Bill’s car. They help him up the stairs and into his room. Bev, Stan, and Ben will follow soon after, making sure to lock the house first.

Bill and Mike help him draw a bath since he is still a bit out of it. They leave him fresh clothes on the bathroom counter and shut the door.

Eddie undress himself and dips himself in the tub. He normally does not use the tub in any hotel he stays since he doesn’t know if it has been cleaned properly, but today is different, he doesn’t give a rat’s ass if it’s filthy or not. He wants a bath so he is going to get a fucking bath.

He soaks for 20 minutes. When the water starts to cool he unplugs the tub and stares at the water while it drains down.

His fingers and toes are pruning but takes a shower anyway.

He lathers his hair with his favorite shampoo longer than usual, puts more conditioner than necessary, and scrubs his body gently with his loofah. He rinses himself and stays under the spray until the water runs cold.

Wrinkled but extremely relaxed, Eddie goes out of the bathroom, all dressed in clothes Bill and Mike prepared. All his friends are in his room so he deduces that he might have spent a long time washing himself. They all smile at him.

“Hey honey,” Bev starts, “You feeling okay?”

“Yeah. I feel better, actually.” Eddie answers.

“Patty made soup,” Stan points at the small table by the door, “You should eat.”

Eddie moves to sit, “Thanks, Stan.” He looks at his friends, “You all should eat.”

“No, we’re fine—”

“It’s alright, honey—”

“We’re good—”

“It’s okay—”

“We’re not hungry—”

They all protest at the same time. Eddie huffs a frustrated sigh, “I’m fine guys, I just got a little light-headed from the heat. I’m not sick so don’t treat me like a fucking baby.”

The rest of the Losers look at each other, clearly assessing the situation and considering Eddie’s request. Bev bites her lip, “Okay. We are not babying you, Eddie, but you disappeared for almost half a day. And you almost collapsed earlier. We’re allowed to at least be worried.”

“And you s-scared the f-fuck out of me and Ben. Even Richie got worried.” Bill adds.

Eddie sits up straighter at the mention of Richie’s name. Bev shoots Bill a look. “I told you, I’m fine. I just need another paracetamol, some water, and an 8-hour sleep, that’s all.”

“Do you have all of that?” Mike asks.

“Yes, Michael. I do have all of those.”

“And are you sure you’re fine?” Stan asks.

“Yes, Stanley. I am perfectly fine.”

“Alright,” Ben pipes up, “I’ll buy food and we can all eat here with Eddie.”

“Thank you, Benjamin.”

Ben and Bev head out to buy food. The others are left to entertain Eddie with stories about their old schoolmates. Eddie is interested in only a few but he listens to all of them nonetheless. Like Bev’s old bully, Greta Bowie, now runs the local pharmacy. She and Bev still do not like each other but they tolerate one another. With Greta not acknowledging that she used to torment Bev as a middle schooler, in order to buy some of Bev’s clothes.

Bradley Donovan, the same Bradley with the lisp who attended his welcome party, is now a teacher in their very own Derry Middle School. He forgot to ask Bradley about his work, so he feels a little guilty but quickly dismisses the feeling.

Calvin Clark, who was a year or two below them at school, works at the hardware store (he already knows that) and is married to Andrea Carrell, one of their old classmates. They have 2 kids together. Calvin’s twin, Cissy, is a nurse at the Derry General.

Henry Bowers, one of their school’s notorious bullies, and at the same time theirs, has been institutionalized for almost as much as Eddie’s been gone for mutilating children and dumping them in the barrens. Eddie asks for them not to elaborate and just move on to the next.

Don and Adrian (Eddie, again, feels a bit guilty for not talking to them alone) have been married for 5 years now, and are managing the local grocery store. Eddie reminds himself to pay them a visit one of these days, or even before he goes.

“And Richie—”

“We’re back!” Ben and Bev say at the same time, interrupting Mike. “We brought Thai food! We have pad thai, mango sticky rice, a bunch of noodle soups, and grilled chicken with sticky rice.”

They arrange themselves and the food on the table and grabs a few more chairs downstairs.

After eating, they all say goodbye to Eddie, letting him rest for the night. Eddie, being the person that he is, opens his laptop and attempts to do some work his firm sent. After 30 minutes of typing and reading contracts, the back of his eyes start to hurt, so he shut his laptop and goes to bed.

Eddie finds himself unable to rise from his bed the next morning. His limbs too painful to be moved and his eyes too heavy to stay open. He groans from pain, his mouth feels like someone stuffed cotton balls down his throat and in his ears while he slept. He feels cold, which is odd since it’s the middle of summer. He feels his neck with his palm, it feels hot and clammy, but he couldn’t be sure if he has a fever.

Aw shit, I can’t be sick, he tells himself. He spends a long time trying to get out of bed, when he does, he goes to the bathroom straightaway to shower. The hot water feels refreshing and he forgets his heavy head after. Eddie wears his red jacket since he’s feeling cold and gets to his car to go to the house.

By the time he arrives, his friends are already in the house. It’s only Ben, Bill, and him today. Everybody’s busy with their jobs and the two of them are the only free ones. “Hey guys,” Eddie greets them weakly. The two men are wearing long sleeves, rubber boots, PVC gloves, and gas masks. They’re bagging up trash further into the house.

Eddie struggles to wear his protective gear, even almost collapsing a few times, he instinctively grabs the railing for support. He’s sweating under his jacket but he’s still too cold to remove it.

“Eddie, are y-you okay?” Bill asks, putting down his bag and slowly walking up to Eddie. “You look pale.”

“Do I? No, I’m fine. I just have a cold.” He leans himself on the wall to use both hands in wearing his boots, “My nose is clogged up.” He pants.

“You’re sweating, Eddie. Maybe you have a flu?” Ben asks.

“I don’t, I don’t have a cough.”

“Wait, Eddie. Stop moving.” Bill removes his gloves and feels his forehead. God, his hands are cold. It feels so good. He closes his eyes to savor the cooling effect of his friend’s hand when his knees buckle under him. “Woah!” Bill catches him in his arms. “Ben, a little help.”

They help Eddie out in the porch for fresh air, frowning at him, saying he has a fever and that he shouldn’t have tried getting out of bed. Bev arrives a bit later with a large paper bag full of stuff Eddie can’t see. They help Eddie back into his car and drive him back to the townhouse, Bill driving Eddie’s car and Ben and Bev in his.

In his room, they lay Eddie back in his bed. Bev sticks a fever gel patch on his forehead and takes his temperature. “100.4 degrees,” she says, “that’s not too bad. You just need some rest.”

“But the house—” he protests.

“The house will be fine, Eddie,” Ben assures him, “Bill and I will take care of it.”

“You need to rest, Eddie. You’ll just make yourself sicker if you try to work.” Bill says.

“Don’t strain yourself, honey,” Bev pets with his hair, “They’ll be fine.”

Bill and Ben drive back to the house after Bev assures them that she’ll stay with Eddie. Eddie pouts and tries to bargain his way out of the situation but Bev shoots him a look that almost puts the fear of God inside him, so he pouted even harder in his bed. A few minutes later, Bev shuts the door close.

“So, have you eaten anything before you went out?” Bev asks.

“No. I wasn’t hungry.”

“Did you even took medicine after we went home last night?”

“I… forgot.”

Bev rubs her hands on her face, “Okay. It’s lunchtime so I’m going to get some food from Patty’s. Stay here and don’t even think of getting up from that bed, alright? I will allow sitting but nothing else.”

“Fine. I’m too comfortable to move anyway.”

She leaves after kissing his forehead. A few minutes and two glasses of water later, he’s feeling a tad bit fine so he grabs his laptop to maybe finish what he started last night.

Bev finds him 30 minutes later, frowning and fumingly typing. His eyes shift to the door recognizing Bev, “Hi, I’m just going to finish this.” He types a few more and then hits enter. That would serve his irresponsible superiors right.

Bev moves the small table and a chair beside the bed and laid out the food. “I brought ice cream from Adrian and Don’s. Hope you still like Rocky Road.” She smiles at him.

“I still do. Thanks.”

“Well your fever’s not that high so if you rest the whole afternoon, you’ll be up and running tomorrow.” Bev explained. He nods his head. Eddie knows this but didn’t say anything.

“You know you don’t have to stay with me the whole day, right? I can take care of myself.”

“Oh I know that. But if I don’t stay you’ll work yourself to death.”

Eddie sighs, his cover has been blown. “Alright, alright. But can I at least work a little? I really have to finish reviewing this contract by the end of the day. They need this tomorrow at first light.”

She eyes him suspiciously, “Okay, you can work. But!” she leans in and holds his face in her palms, “please don’t work too much today, alright? You can go back to breaking your back working when you’re feeling better.”

Eddie covers one of Bev’s hands with his, “Yes, ma’am. I’ll take care of myself.”

They eat in silence after. Eddie tried his best to eat as much as he could but only managed to finish his plate. There’s still more food left. Bev smiled at him, assuring him it’s fine.

As they eat the ice cream, Bev tells him about her current project. Turns out she has a store in New York, but one of her cousins manages it. People love her clothes because not only it is one of a kind, it’s also made with love. Some productions in New York even buy clothes from her, since she only makes a few copies of a design. And if a client wants a sold-out design, they would have to wait for a few weeks for another batch. It is not overproduced, that’s why people love Marsh’s Wardrobe.

She tells him about his ex-husband and their divorce. Not the nitty-gritty part of it, just the vaguest of reason. But he made his conclusion and he’s furious. He would be livid if he’s not sick. He hugs Bev tightly and kisses her temple. She says Ben really helped and, of course, the other Losers.

He apologizes for not being there. “It’s fine. You didn’t know, and if you were there, I don’t think Stan and Mike could stop any of you from doing something stupid. They barely stopped Bill, Ben, and Richie.” They both laugh at that.

Eddie wants to share something, anything, about his life after he left Derry, yet he could not think of any. He knows a lot has happened to him, but it’s all insignificant compared to what his friends have experienced and achieved, he’s sure of it. Though there are things that he’s somewhat proud of achieving, like tossing away his dependency in his inhaler that his mom had ingrained in him that he badly needed (he still has one, but it’s probably expired now). Or his fear of getting sick. Sandra helped him a lot with that one. Said their mom also tried conditioning her into thinking she’s weak and sickly but being pigheaded that she is, their mother’s fears did not rub on her. And when she turned 18, she walked out and never looked back.

Eddie got her contact information from one of her old classmates in Derry when he was a junior. One day he was minding his own business with his friends, the next day he was running frantically to a nearby phone booth to call his sister. Sandra never visited him, but when he ran away she picked him up at the nearest bus stop outside of Derry. She said she never wanted to step foot in that town ever again, and that she was happy that he got away too. She apologized for abandoning Eddie, for leaving him alone with their mom. “I know you didn’t mean to,” he had said. They both cried.

Over the years, they helped each other to survive. He got a full ride to NYU for his stellar grades, and he qualified for another scholarship which he used to pay for his books and other fees. Sandra had an apartment that was only a few rides away from NYU so he lived with her to save money. She was already working as a pastry chef in one of the up-and-coming restaurants downtown so money wasn’t that much of a problem. But even though money “wasn’t a problem” in his new household, it was obvious that her sister pinched every paycheck she had gotten since Eddie lived with her, even if she did her best to hide it from him. He would see an opened bill every now and then on the dining table in the middle of the night, a notice hidden at the back of the sofa, things like that. He started waiting tables after reading a strongly-worded letter from their landlord one day. Although Sandra was deeply opposed to the idea at first, he got her to agree after a series of yelling and threats of running away. Looking back at it, it was kind of manipulative, but Sandra was not easily controlled. She might have seen that Eddie just really wanted to help, and thought of the benefits if Eddie found a work. Sandra agreed, but only if he worked 20 hours per week or less.

They survived in the end. And with Eddie graduating with Latin honors, companies were practically throwing money at him to come work for them. He negotiated with every company who contacted him for a higher salary, and less workload if he could, then finally a company relented to his demands so he accepted.

He lived with Sandra for a few more years then moved out after he finished his master’s degree and got promoted. By that time, Sandra got her own pastry shop and was free to do whatever she wanted.

Sandra is currently on her honeymoon (they’re probably in Thailand now or something) after getting married to her on-again-off-again girlfriend, Kylie. Eddie only met her thrice; the first time during a Skype call to her sister, the second time when she and Sandra dragged him to dinner to tell him they’re engaged, and the third time at their wedding.

The losers never really met her. Bill and Stan knew of her but were never close to her. She intimidated them. Richie was the only friend of Eddie’s that Sandra actually interacted since he is the only one stubborn enough to climb the tree by Eddie’s window to play with him.

In the end, Eddie did not say anything. Bev cleaned up, kissed Eddie’s forehead after watching him take his medicine, and made him promise not to exert himself. She also said she’d be calling every half an hour to check up on him.

Eddie falls asleep after revising a few clauses in a contract he’s working and wakes up again around 6 PM when Stan comes to check on him. Patty comes a little later and the three of them eat dinner. Eddie’s fever is gone but his head still hurts a little bit so an hour after Stan and Patty leave, he’s getting ready for bed. He sends the documents needed for tomorrow and goes to sleep.

\----

“Any plans for tomorrow, Eddie?” Bill asks.

“For the 4th? Nothing, why?” He answers, puzzled.

“Oh good. Georgie’s hosting t-this year’s party so we’re all heading there t-tomorrow from here.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, everyone’s going to be there. Well, our friends, basically.” Bill gives him a big smile. “You can bring anyone you w-want, this is not an exclusive p-party. I’m bringing Audra.”

“Oh no, I won’t do that. I mean I won’t bring anybody. Should I bring something?”

“It’s f-fine. Milly and Georgie got it c-covered.”

Bill goes back to the basement to check on Mike and Ben. They’re helping Bill change the water pipes so they could at least use the toilet by the kitchen. They have been using the hardware’s toilet for the past month since it’s the closest space with a working toilet, and it’s only a 3-minute drive.

The downstairs bathroom is not as gross as the upstairs one since it is the only bathroom Sonia used after Eddie ran away. The one upstairs has maggots and various animal carcasses, both fresh and old, and droppings. Eddie hasn’t been upstairs yet so Bill narrated him the damage Time has inflicted on the second floor.

The first floor has mostly been cleared of the clutter. There are still a few boxes here and there but it’s nothing of concern. Eddie finds a small safe hidden inside a small cupboard by his mom’s old recliner. Eddie doesn’t know the password so he calls Ben to ask if he has a steel cutter since the safe is the old-timey type with flimsy metal. He doesn’t so they ask Bill and Mike. Bill has one but it’s with Georgie’s. Eddie drives to the hardware store to ask for the steel cutter. Georgie cannot leave the store so he gives Eddie the key to his toolshed’s lock. 

Minutes later, Eddie comes back with the steel cutter. The four of them gathered around it as Eddie carefully cuts through the metal. They find important documents like his dad’s death certificate, his parents’ marriage certificate, a few letters from his dad to his mom, a bunch of his parents’ pictures together, and a single family picture. Eddie’s still a baby in the picture, probably a less than a year old, in his mom’s arms. His dad, standing behind his mom, and Sandra, sitting on the armrest, her pigtails adorably uneven. They’re all smiling. Eddie’s chest ached.

“That’s Sandra?” Mike asks.

“Yeah, she’s five years older than us,” Bill answers him instead of Eddie.

He placed the documents in an envelope and brings it to his car. He and Ben load the mangled safe in the back of Ben’s truck, along with other metals they find, for disposal.

\----

They lock up two hours before the party so as they have time to rest and wash up. They all head to different directions, with Eddie going back to the townhouse. He already bought two bottles of wine yesterday so he’s all set. He sets an alarm and naps for an hour.

In the shower, he thinks about the things that might happen tonight. It’s a party and Bill said all their friends will be attending, so Richie is most likely going to be present. He’s fine. Everything is fine. It’s just a party and he knows Richie is going to be there, so he’s not going to ‘autopilot’ again just like what Sandra had said to him a long time ago. It’s probably time to talk to Richie, he thinks. One month is a long time to get ready to talk to someone.

It is a warm night so he dresses comfortably; black jeans, a thin dark blue shirt, and sneakers.

Bill, Ben, and Bev are already there when he arrives. He gives Georgie the wines after giving him a short hug, and Milly a kiss on the cheek. He meets Audra in the kitchen helping Milly while Georgie starts the grill. They chat for a while, about her job, their renovations, his job in New York, her latest project. They part ways when Georgie asked for Eddie’s help in the yard. 

Stan, Patty, and Mike arrive after him and soon everybody’s laughing and drinking. They light some sparklers when the fireworks begin and Eddie plays for a bit with Don and Adrian’s kids.

A car honks and pulls over a house away from Georgie’s. The driver kills the engine, then a man and a woman get off and walk together to the house. They cross the front yard and his friends simultaneously cheer “Richie!” His heart pounds in his chest but ignores it.

Eddie goes inside the house to use the toilet. He’s on his way back when he bumps onto someone big. He shifts his gaze up and sees Richie.

“Hey, Eds. Long time no see,” he greets.

“Hi, Richie.”

“You good?” he asks. Eddie is confused, but his confusion must be painted on his face since Richie adds, “You look kinda sick the other day.”

“Oh yeah. I’m fine.” Eddie gives him a tight smile.

Richie clicks his tongue and knocks on the wall, his nervous tick, Eddie remembers, “Um, yeah, gotta go piss,”

“Oh sure, yeah.” Eddie gets out of his way and goes outside.

It’s not too bad. It is a bit awkward, sure, but not too uncomfortable. Maybe Eddie could talk to him later outside.

Eddie hangs with his friends for a while then talks to a few other people present, but half of his attention is at the door, waiting for Richie to come out.

Richie does, eventually, but goes straight to his female companion. He gives her a plate and together they start picking burgers and a bunch of other food. They bring it to the table where their friends are.

Eddie wraps up his conversation with Carla and Paul and casually walks back to their table. He grabs Mike's drink and takes a sip. Mike looks at him. “I don’t want to get a drink I won’t finish.” He explains. Mike shrugs and takes a sip of his own drink. They share the wine cooler until it’s gone but Richie’s still talking to Audra, so he occupies himself with the others instead. He asks Mike about the latest activities of the library, Ben with his architect journey, Bev with her store in New York, and Patty about the best seller in their restaurant.

He takes a glance at his watch and sees it is already 11:15 PM. No time to talk to him then, so he starts saying goodbye to the others. He’s on his way to his car when a hand touches his shoulder, he nearly jumps. “Jesus, fuck!” he gasps. Eddie turns around and finds Richie smiling at him. All teeth, but doesn’t really reach his eyes.

“Uh, hey. Sorry about giving you a heart attack,”

“It’s fine, man. What is it?” he asks, heart still pounding in his chest. Damn that was a fright.

“It was really nice seeing you today, dude. Sorry we haven’t had time to talk. Sandy was pretty nervous about coming today so she asked me not to leave her side.”

Sandy. Oh yeah, Sandy Holden. “It’s alright, man. I’m staying for a few more weeks so I bet we’ll have time to catch up or whatever.”

“Cool. I’m going back now. Sandy’s waiting for me. Bye, Eddie.” Richie says as he skips back to the house.

“Bye,” he calls out.

Suddenly, Richie turns to him and half yells, “Also, I know you’ve been here since June and you had dinner with the others at Stan’s,” He gives Eddie a wide grin and a wave goodbye before he resumes skipping, leaving Eddie stunned on the sidewalk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tbh, I haven't written the next chapter yet.
> 
> Sandy is actually Gabriel so obviously Kylie is Kali.
> 
> talk to me on [tumblr](https://haatorii.tumblr.com/ask)!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay here's another lmao
> 
> A few warnings for this chapter, there are accidents (no gore or blood), body injury (but not grave) and some insensitive jokes about a dead relative.
> 
> Please ignore some medical inaccuracies as I have not yet experienced breaking a bone and/or had a concussion.
> 
> Thank you very much.

The ground floor is finally clear from clutter, boxes, animal bones, and whatever else that accumulated for 17 years.

The next thing they tackle is the basement. It is actually better than the first floor before they cleared everything. All stuff are in boxes and stacked on top of each other so there are plenty of spaces to walk through. Most of them though, if not all, have been damaged by floodwater and rats. Eddie won’t be able to sell most of the stuff in the basement because they have all been ravished. He’ll try his luck on the second floor.

Bill and Mike have already kicked off clearing the basement since they started with the pipes, but still there are a lot, so Eddie picks up two chewed-on boxes and climbs up the stairs out of the basement. He puts in on the porch so he could look at it later. Surely the rats left him clothes that could still be donated after a thorough washing.

He does this a couple of times before he finds Richie standing behind his front door.

“Yo, Eddie.” He greets.

“Hey, Richie. What do you want?” he asks, suddenly conscious of his sweat.

“Is Bill here?”

“He’s in the basement with Mike.”

“Okay, cool. Can I go talk to him?”

“Be my guest,” Eddie gestures inside so Richie goes in. Eddie follows behind him.

Before they could reach the end of the basement steps, Richie starts talking to Bill, asking him about his availability for the ‘interview’. Bill doesn’t give him a concrete answer since he’s too busy looking up from what he’s doing. Richie stays for about 30 more minutes as Eddie continues to gather boxes outside, then he leaves with a loud ‘Bye!’ to everyone inside the house.

Eddie sees Richie again three days after.

He’s loading boxes of clothes to drop in the Laundromat when he sees Richie coming from his left.

“Hey, Eddie. Bill still here?”

“Yeah, he’s in the 1st floor bathroom.”

“Great,” then Richie points inside, silently asking Eddie if he could go inside.

Eddie nods his head.

Henrietta Dumont owns the local Laundromat. She doesn’t remember Eddie so he doesn’t approach her. It is morning and the middle of the week so the place is empty, he goes to the farthest ones. He occupies two machines, one for gray and whites, and the other for colored shirts. His and Sandra’s old clothes, with a few of their mother’s. He punches in several quarters, pours in some soap and detergent, shut the machine, and let it spin.

He has an hour to kill. Henrietta is reading a magazine while the radio plays soft music in the background. Eddie goes out to buy lunch.

He comes back in the Laundromat a few minutes later. Henrietta is still reading her magazine and the place is still as empty as it was when he left. He still has 45 minutes so he decides to go home for a while to deliver their lunch.

Richie is still there when he comes back, good thing he bought extra. They all eat together and when Eddie’s alarm goes off, he tells the boys he has to get the laundry. Eddie drives back, folds the laundry, and goes to Bev’s house.

“I have a few plastic boxes lying around,” she gestures around her workshop. “You can put the clothes there and store them for a while in my spare room.”

“I really owe you and Stan for letting me store my mom’s shit in your places. All of you, actually,” Eddie starts placing the clothes inside huge, opaque, plastic boxes he finds behind Bev’s rolls and rolls of fabric. “You all helped me even if I was a shitty friend.”

“Honey, you were not a ‘shitty’ friend,” she smiles at him. “You just had to deal with your feelings alone.” She snips and runs the blouse she’s making under the sewing machine. “Yeah, sure, you left us for almost two decades but you came back.”

Eddie winces at her ‘two decades’. But it’s true, why would he get offended?

“We weren’t the reason why you left, right?”

“No, of course not…” he pauses, “It’s what happened to me, I guess?” He locks the plastic box and gets another. “I mean, if I think about it now, it was extremely absurd, the reason why I left. If I just stayed, I probably would have solved it in like a week.”

Bev puts down the blouse and hangs her scissors. She then sits on the floor with Eddie to help him fold the freshly laundered clothes. “Do you want to talk about it?” She asks.

Eddie considers her offer. For almost two decades, only he knew what happened. Not even Sandra knew what made him run away. Sandra probably had suspicions but she never asked so Eddie never offered. If Eddie tells Bev, she might even help her. _You’re braver than you think._ He’s braver than he thinks. Richie told him once. _It’s braver to admit that you needed help._ Sandra told him a bunch of times.

He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.

“Okay. This is my side of the story,” he starts.

He tells her everything. From what Richie meant to him, how Sandra found him at the bus stop, how he survived his college years, to what happened to him and his sister when the Derry Sherriff’s Department called to inform them about their mother’s passing.

They were having lunch when a stranger emailed Eddie about the news. The email stated Sonia Kaspbrak’s passing and how they got his email (they googled Eddie’s name and the name of his company showed). He and Sandra were stunned, to say the least. No tears were shed but Eddie’s ‘sadness’ came much later, he couldn’t say so for Sandra.

Eddie and his sister arranged the wake in Augusta so their mom’s sister could attend as well as her other cousins. They both came, but Sandra left after a day and didn’t attend the funeral. He asked his mom’s lawyer to arrange the necessary documents (i.e. death certificate) so he wouldn’t have go back to Derry. But he was born under a bad sign, apparently, so he still had to go back and flip the house.

He thought he would have a terrible time home but so far he’s loving it. It is good to be back. He missed the fresher air, the neighborhood, the simplicity of everything. But most of all his friends. Even the bumps he’s encountered weren’t all that bad.

It is mid-afternoon when he finished telling his story and packing the clothes in the boxes.

“So, what are you thinking?” he nervously asks Bev.

“Can I be honest?” Bev bites her lip. Eddie nods. “You were right. You probably would’ve solved it in a week. Or three days, even.”

Eddie groans. “See? I’m so fucking dramatic.”

“Eddie, it’s fine. You were a teenager. Teenagers make drama out of thin air.”

“But you didn’t!”

“I made up for it when I was in my 20,” she shrugs.

“If I just asked instead of running away, who knows what could’ve happened!” he’s pacing around the room now, eyebrows scrunched and waving his hands.

“Eddie. Eddie, look at me,” he looks at Bev who is still sitting on the floor. “Yes, you’re right. Who knows what could’ve happened. But you’ve come a long way, Eds. You running away all those years ago is a part of what made you what you are right now. Just like me doing stupid shit in my 20s is part of what made me what I am. And all those decisions lead you to where you are right now. Back to us.”

Eddie grumbles and sits back down. “But I could’ve stayed for all of you.”

“If you stayed, who knows if you’d still be here? I mean, what if you and Richie didn’t make up and one of you splits from the group? Or what if you both stayed and resented each other? We’d be forced to take a side like kids in a divorce. It won’t end up like that obviously because Richie would annoy the hell out of Stan and he’ll force you to make up with him, just so Richie would leave him alone.”

Eddie lets out a laugh, “Yeah, I could totally see Stan doing that.”

He looks at Bev fondly. God, how did he survive all those years without them by his side? Teenage Eddie almost had everything he could’ve asked for, yet he chose to leave.

“Love you, Bev.” He says. It is refreshing to finally say those words to someone else again and mean it.

“Love you too, buddy.” Bev reaches out and pulls him in for a long, tight hug.

It doesn’t matter. He’s back now and he’ll never let them go again.

\----

Richie becomes a daily visitor.

He mostly bugs Bill, and sometimes Mike, about his interview. To where Eddie has no idea.

After a few days, Bill has had enough.

“Richie, if you want to k-keep coming here every day, m-might as well pick up a g-garbage bag and help Eddie c-clean upstairs.”

Richie grabs a bag but grumbles his way upstairs.

Eddie meets him at the top of the stairs. “What, Bill’s had enough of you?” he chuckles. They walk towards one of the many windows, carefully stepping over broken figurines, piled up broken appliances, and giant stuffed animals.

“Yeah, said I might as well help. I mean, I wanna but…” he gestures towards Eddie and him. “I don’t exactly know if I’m welcome here or whatever.”

Eddie cocks his head to the side, confused. “What makes you think I don’t want you coming here?”

“Dude, I’m basically like, the only one left of our friend group who didn’t see you. Like, if I didn’t come here that day to ask for Bill I know you wouldn’t want to see me. I literally had to learn from Mike, in the middle of your dinner party, that you’re home.”

Oh that. Eddie shifts his gaze to the floor, embarrassed. “It’s not that,” he says.

“Then what is? I mean, I’m not angry. You probably have a good excuse or whatever. Like when you ran away and never told me anything. I thought we were tight, man. We were best friends.”

Eddie’s head snaps up. Anger suddenly fills his chest and spreads to his head like ink on water. “What the fuck do you mean… Rich, we were more than friends.” His voice shaky, trying his best to mask the anger in it.

Richie is sweating, Eddie observes. “Uh, no we’re not,” he’s not looking at him.

“Do you even remember what you did? What _I_ did before _you_ did what you did?”

“You’re losing me here, Eds. What did I do after you did what you did? Did anybody know what I did? Because I surely don’t.”

“Holy shit.” he steps back, “Holy shit. Oh my god.” He drops his half-way filled garbage bag and sits on the floor, his PVC covered hands clasped behind his head. “I ran away for nothing,” he whispers to himself. “I ran away for fucking nothing!”

He stands up and attempts to slip past through Richie, but he grabs him, “Eds…”

“Don’t fucking call me that!” he jerks his hand and steps back, tripping on a small, wooden stool that sends him straight out of the termite-infested window.

“Eddie!” Richie screams.

It isn’t a high fall, but Eddie lands on his left arm hard, narrowly avoiding the shards of glass falling from the porch roof.

Eddie groans. He can hear Richie screaming his name as he runs towards him. Bill, Mike, and Ben follow soon after, screaming his name.

“Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god! Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck! Are you alright?” Richie kneels beside him, checking for wounds, probably. Eddie doesn’t know. All he’s thinking is how much his arm hurts.

“Fuck,” Eddie groans. “My arm.” He lies on his back, carefully cradling his left arm. He almost gags.

“Shit shit shit. Bill! Mike! We have to get him to the hospital!”

“Aw fuck! Okay, okay,” Mike and Ben rush to help Richie with Eddie, Bill goes to start the car.

Mikes drive the 5 of them to the hospital. Eddie groaning while Richie yells at Mike and Bill to go faster. “Beep beep Richie! You have to keep calm! Or at least just stop screaming! He’ll be fine!” Ben screams at him. He shut his mouth but his mind is obviously running miles a minute.

“Sandy! Fuck, Sandy!” Richie cries right after he gets off the car. The attendants give them a wheelchair and Ben and Bill help Eddie sit. Richie gets in first, still screaming Sandy’s name.

“Richie, Richie, I’m here! What happened?” A nurse comes running, probably Sandy. Eddie is too focused on his broken arm to notice.

“He,” Richie groans, scrunching his eyes shut and running his hand through his hair. “He fell out of the window. He landed on his back, I think. I don’t know.” He looks like he’s about to puke.

“Okay, it’s okay.” She looks at Ben and Mike, “You can take him inside now.”

Ben and Mike roll him inside then a nurse takes him from them to wheel him further inside.

Eddie doesn’t know what happened outside after the nurses took him from Ben and Mike. The nurses probably let one of them sign the admission form or something.

They give Eddie an x-ray to see if there are other fractures and checked him for a possible concussion, which he has but a mild one. They fix him up, give him a cast, and a prescription for pain killers.

The sun is starting to set when they leave the hospital, with Eddie still feeling loopy from this mild concussion. Everybody is quiet on the drive home. Richie and Ben help Eddie up the stairs to his room, while Mike and Bill go back to the Kaspbrak property to close up.

Patty and Bev arrive a few minutes later to check on the three of them.

“Is he okay?” Patty asks Richie.

“The doctor says he’s going to be fine, it’s just a broken bone and mild concussion.” Richie answers.

Bev approaches Eddie, sitting at the edge of the bed. “Are you okay, honey?”

“Yeah, I think,” Eddie replies. He still feels a little sleepy and tired but he guesses it’s the adrenaline wearing off. “I’m fine.”

“You shouldn’t be alone tonight,” Bev says. Her voice silently suggesting someone should stay with Eddie for the night.

“I’ll stay with him.” Richie instantly volunteers.

“Are you going to be okay?” Ben asks. “You were pretty freaked out earlier. I could do it if Eddie’s okay with it. Or I could join you.”

“Guys, I’m fi—”

“No, no. It’s fine. It was my fault he fell in the first place. I’ll just text Jimmy I can’t come in later.” He whips out his phone from his pocket and starts texting. “It’s early, he can still ask Stella to fill my place tonight. She owes me a shift after that emergency date last month.”

“If you’re sure,” Ben says.

They stay for another 30 minutes to make sure Eddie and Richie are going to be fine. After Mike and Bill bring food and water for both of them they leave along with the others. Richie shuts the door behind them.

“Do you wanna eat something? We have a crazy amount of food here,” he starts removing microwavable food and snacks from the bag. “There’s rice, mashed potatoes, soup. Why the fuck would Bill buy soup for you? You’re not that kind of sick.” He removes the lid of the soup and sniffs. He scrunched his nose and puts the lid back.

“How are you even sure Bill bought that?”

“Oh, Bill is an absolute moron. Mike has the monopoly of the brain cells of those two. Oh there’s ice cream!” He opens the lid and shows it to Eddie. “It’s Rocky Road, your favorite.”

Eddie is still a bit out of his mind to internalize what Richie said, “What’s the soup?”

“Hm? Do you have a fridge in here?”

“Yes, beside the TV. What soup did Bill buy?”

“Chicken noodle. Hey, do you remember that time you thought you were chased by a stray dog?” Richie stores the ice cream inside the fridge.

“I did not _think_ I was chased, I _was_ chased by it.”

“You totally weren’t! The dog was just there chillin’!”

“Oh yeah? Tell that to the wet spot it left on my leg and the grazes half my body got. That dog definitely chased me.”

“You have an overactive imagination, dude.”

“You were there. We were together that day and you saw I was lying in the middle of the road, bleeding, and you laughed at me. Why the fuck would I lie about being chased?”

“I dunno, dude. For shits and giggles?” Richie shrugs.

“Fuck you. Why would you even bring that up if you’d just laugh at me?” Eddie snaps at him.

“I dunno. I just remembered.”

That was a weird day, Eddie thinks, when that incident happened. It was summer. Bill, Stan, and Ben were in summer camps, Bev was out of town with her aunt, and Mike was helping in the farm. Only he and Richie did not have anything else to do. That day, they went out to go to the park. For what, he couldn’t remember, probably just to fuck around until it’s time to go home again. Richie was walking ahead of him, yelling at him to go faster, he didn’t want to run because it was too hot so he took his time walking. He was swinging his arms comically when he passed by a house with a stray dog lying on its belly in front. He didn’t know what happened, one time he was walking and the next thing dog started growling and chased him for about a hundred meters. He never ran so fast in his fucking life, faster than his usual run when Bowers were out to get them. He ran even faster when he felt something wet and slimy touch his calf. He screamed for Richie then he tripped and skid facedown all the way to where Richie was standing.

He never left the house for a week straight after that, but still Richie insisted the dog didn’t even leave its spot. “It was drooling! There was drool every fucking where and then he chased me! I could’ve gotten bit! I could’ve contracted rabies you fucking idiot!”

“You want some soup?” Richie asks, interrupting his thoughts.

Eddie rolls his eyes. “Yes.”

Richie helps Eddie sit then moves the small table beside Eddie’s bed. He sets everything then grabs a chair so they could start eating.

“How’s Sandra?” Richie bites into his food.

“She’s either still in her honeymoon or back in New York. I haven’t spoken to her yet.” Eddie eats his bowl of soup. It is starting to get lukewarm but still good.

“She’s married? That’s good to hear. She looks like she could get some dicking down.” He chuckles.

“She married a woman.”

“Oh? Good for her.”

As if on cue, Eddie’s phone goes off, playing Sandra’s ringtone.

“Edward Kaspbrak speaking,” he says in his best customer service voice. Richie snickers in front of him.

“ED EDD N’ EDDIEWARD!! EDWARD!! WE’RE HOME—HI EDDIE!!” Kylie interrupts Sandra’s screaming to greet him. “EDDIE! WE’RE HOME! ARE YOU STILL IN BUMFUCK, MAINE?”

“Yes, I’m still in Derry. We’re doing great progress in the house.” He says.

“WHO’S ‘WE’?”

“Bill, Bev, Stan, the others.”

“OH YOU MEAN YOUR CHILDHOOD FRIENDS.”

“Yes, my friends.” Eddie looks at Richie who is watching him carefully, probably listening to their conversation because Sandra just cannot talk like a normal person.

“WHAT ABOUT RICHIE? IS RICHIE THERE?”

Richie perks up when he hears his name, “I’M HERE!” he yells. Eddie rubs his ear.

“OOOOOHHHHH ARE YOU TWO ON A DATE??” Sandra teases. Eddie hears a quiet ‘who’s Richie’ in the background in which his sister replies ‘his childhood crush’

Eddie’s fucking traitorous face warms up. He could only wish Richie is too focused on his food to hear. “What do you want, Sandra?”

“JUST ASKING ABOUT THE HOUSE. CAN I HELP WITH ANYTHING?”

“You certainly can! You can haul your ass up here and help us with the repairs!”

“NO CAN DO, MY GOOD SIR. MY WIFE NEEDS ME HERE.” Eddie hears kissing noises from the other side.

“That’s bullshit. Kylie doesn’t need you. Kylie, save yourself, you can still file for annulment!”

“THAT’S OFF THE TABLE, LITTLE BROTHER. I’M AFRAID WE ARE BOTH CAPABLE OF HAVING SEXUAL RELATIONS. IN FACT, BEFORE CALLING YOU I A—MMF!!”

“Hi Eddie, it’s Kylie,” she says sweetly, taking over the phone from his sister. “How’s renovation? Do you need us to bring you anything?”

“No, Kylie. The renovation is doing great. We’ve finished the yard and we’re slowly clearing the—hey!” Eddie yelps when Richie grabs the phone from his hands and moves far away from him.

“Hi, this is Richie. Please tell Sandra Eddie broke his arm earlier this morning and he has a mild concussion. But he’s fine, we took him to the hospital and the doctor said he could take the cast off after 6 weeks if he doesn’t kill himself from working first. Thank you very much, now I am giving you back to Eddie.”

Richie rushes to give the phone back to Eddie which he snatches from his hands. He gives him a glare and continues to talk to his sister-in-law.

“This is Eddie.” 

“OHMYGODEDDIE!! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?”

“Yes, Sandra. I’m fine. Or I will be. Still feeling a little groggy but I’ll live.”

“GIVE THE PHONE BACK TO RICHIE.”

Confused, Eddie hands the phone to Richie which he takes, the same confusion in his face.

“Hello?”

“HOW DID HE FUCKING FALL FROM THE WINDOW?” Sandra yells. Eddie could hear her properly even from a distance.

“OW! YELL A LITTLE LOUDER SO YOUR MOM CAN HEAR YOU FROM SIX FEET UNDER.”

Eddie whacks him with a pillow. “Too fucking soon, dickhead. Ow!” he massages his head gently

“HAR HAR, ASSHOLE. HOW DID HE FUCKING FALL??”

Richie sighs, “He tripped on a stool.”

“HE TRIPPED ON SHIT?!”

“No, moron, on a small chair.”

“HOW DID HE TRIP ON A SMALL CHAIR?!”

“And whose fault is that?” Eddie sneers.

“WHAT DID HE SAY? I HEARD EDDIE SAY SOMETHING.”

“Shh! Shut your mouth!” Richie scolds Eddie, “NOTHING. HE’S A KLUTZ! YOU KNOW HOW EDDIE IS!” He laughs awkwardly. “How are you, by the way, my favorite Kaspbrak? How’s the wedding? You have room for another person in your relationship?”

“IT WAS WONDERFUL, THANK YOU VERY MUCH, AND NO, EDDIE’S FREE, THOUGH. YOU SHOULD ASK HIM.”

“No, thank you!” Eddie answers.

“GIVE THE PHONE BACK TO HIM, TOZIER.”

Richie gives back the phone.

“Be honest, are you really okay? Do you want me to tag you out? Because I could leave right now.” She says seriously. Sandra isn’t really known for her warm and wonderful personality. She’s more of a hit-and-miss kind of person when it comes to her attitude, even with Eddie, so he is definitely surprised about her sincerity.

“Um, no. It’s fine. I’m fine. Just like what Richie said the cast will come off after 6 weeks if I’m careful. I will take it easy on the house, I promise.”

Sandra is quiet on the other side, obviously thinking. Eddie gets a little bit nervous when she does that because 75% of the time, all she comes up with results to more trouble for the other party involved.

Sandra grunts on the other line. He hears a few rustles then, “Hi, Eddie. It’s Kylie again. Your sister is sulking on the sofa now. She’s really worried about you and it’s totally fine if you want to go back home after what happened. She could come up there and finish the renovations herself. It’s no big deal.”

Eddie sighs, wincing a little bit from the pain in his left arm. “There’s no need, Kylie. I’m fine. And I can’t do that to her. She never wanted to go back here. I owe this to her for keeping me.”

He hears Sandra scream in the background, he must be on speaker. “You don’t owe me shit, Eddie. You’re my brother. Siblings help each other.”

“Then let me do this. You helped me years ago, now I’m helping you.”

“Fine, you little shit. But I expect a call every day until the damn cast comes off. Capiche?”

“Yes, Cassandra.”

“Good.”

They talk for a little bit more. Sandra telling Eddie what they did on the countries they visited, what they ate, hilarious things that happened, Richie even laughs in a few of them. They say their goodbyes and finally, they’re alone together again.

“I’m sorry about your arm.” Richie says.

“It wasn’t your fault I tripped. It’s fine.” Eddie digs into the ice cream Richie got out from the small fridge. He scoops another bowl for Richie and slides it to him.

“But you were upset.”

“I don’t want to talk about it, okay?”

So they don’t.

Eddie tries to stand after eating ice cream to wash his bowl but Richie waves him off. He’s almost gearing for another squabble when his arm twinge again. Instead, he takes a pill and stays still.

“Where are you sleeping?”

“Hm?” Richie asks from the bathroom.

“I said, where are you sleeping tonight?”

“I’ll probably take a room. Either across from this room or the next. Dunno.”

“Why would you even waste your money. You can just go home.”

“Um, no? Because you literally fell off a window earlier and got a mild concussion? Not to mention that broken arm over there,” he peeks from the open door and points at Eddie’s arm. “What if you want to eat ice cream in the middle of the night and you bump your head on the way to the fridge? Uh-uh. Not on my watch, buddy.”

“I literally won’t even think of doing that. I don’t eat anything for at least 3 hours after I brushed my teeth.”

“I know, I still remember, but whatever, dude. I’m not leaving you alone. And I already texted my boss so I don’t have anywhere to go tonight.” He wipes the newly washed bowls with paper towels and turns them upside down on the table.

“Whatever.” Eddie arranges himself on the bed, careful not to put any pressure on his left arm. He turns himself away from Richie. “You can sleep on the couch.”

He turns the bedside lamp off and forces himself to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've said this before and I'm saying it again, this story was originally going to be Destiel but I changed my mind and made it Reddie instead. In the Destiel draft, Castiel did fall from a window and broke his arm so imagine my delight when I changed it to Reddie and found out I could still do that. Anyway, this is the only time someone gets injured in the story.
> 
> Also, I might be projecting when I wrote some stuff that happened to Eddie and I really should have made Sandra's name Gabrielle or Gabby.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is like 6k words and it's a freaking mess. I know. I'm sorry.
> 
> CW for Myra. She doesn't really do anything extreme (because I'm not comfortable writing people like that) but she does kind of change how she behaves around other people so they would like her. Also, there's a bit of discussion of injuries. It's not in detail and it's just a few lines but I'm just putting it out here so y'all would be aware.

Two weeks later, a taxi pulls at the curb of the Kaspbrak property.

Eddie is looking through the window, now covered in clear plastic, where he fell not a long time ago, when the backseat opens and then the trunk. The taxi drives away and, moments later, there is a banging on the gate.

Eddie is not expecting anybody, but maybe one of his friends are. There are currently 4 of them working; Bill, Ben, him, and Richie. Sandra is still in New York and as far as he knows, Audra is in Canada. So the person at the gate is most likely here for either Ben or Richie.

Eddie finds Richie in his mom’s old room, bagging hole-ridden clothes and expired make-up. “Hey, are you expecting anybody?” he asks.

“Nope,” Richie answers, popping the p.

He goes down to the first floor bathroom where Ben and Bill are removing the old tile flooring.

He peeks through the door. “Ben, are you expecting company?”

“No,”

“What about you, Bill.”

“N-no. Why?”

“There’s someone banging at the gate.” He says.

“Must be important,” Ben shrugs.

The person on the other side relentlessly bangs the metal gate. It makes him remember the first time Richie visited.

“Okay, okay. I heard you, stop fucking banging.” He irritably opens the bolt latch. His grip is better now since it has been two weeks when the accident happened.

“Hi, Eddie!” A woman greets.

“Myra? What are you doing here?” He asks, stunned. Myra is sweating through her floral purple blouse and jeans. She’s smiling but he could clearly see the irritation behind her smile. Probably from the heat. But New York is hot, what is she so irritated about?

“I heard from Sandra you had an accident. I just want to make sure you’re okay.” A bead of sweat travels from her temple to her jaw. She wipes it off with a white handkerchief.

“I’m fine, Myra. Do you even know someone here in Maine?”

“Not exactly. It’s a friend of a friend. Aren’t you going to let me in?”

“Oh,” he looks around, making sure no one is around, ”Come on in,”

“Thanks, Eddie,” she giggles and goes inside, leaving her suitcases outside. Eddie sighs and rolls the suitcases one at a time to the porch steps.

“Marty, I know you want me to be a gentleman and carry your suitcases but I am literally injured,” he shows her his cast, “So would you please pull your own suitcases up the steps?” he says firmly but not too loud that anybody from inside would hear.

“Sorry, Eddie,” she says sweetly. Eddie wants to roll his eyes so badly. “I just got used to your thoughtfulness.” She pulls one of her suitcases up the remaining steps while Eddie hauls the other one up.

Eddie hears the footsteps before the voice, “Eduardo! Who’s at the gate—oh. Hello,” Richie smiles without reaching his eyes when he sees Myra. “Who is this lady, Spaghetti?”

“Shut up, that’s not my name. This is Myra Paterson. She’s from New York.” He gestures to Myra then puts his hands on his hips.

Myra is having none of that, apparently. She rises from her seat and extends a hand on Richie, “Hi, I’m Myra Paterson, I’m an esthetician. A friend of Eddie and Sandra. Nice to meet you…”

“Richard. Richie. Tozier. I’m a radio DJ. I also am a friend of Eddie and Sandra.” He shakes Myra’s hand and looks at Eddie, smiling uncomfortably as if saying ‘this stranger is really here, huh?’. Eddie rolls his eyes at him.

DJ, huh. So that’s what he does for a living.

Myra lets go of Richie’s hand first and peeks at the screen door. “Can I come in? Is it safe to go inside?” she asks.

“You can, unless you’re a vampire you can’t,” Richie answers.

Myra grins a little. “Eddie?”

“I don’t know, Marty. I mean, it’s filthy inside. If you want an allergic reaction then be my guest.” Eddie is sweating like a man whose mistress and wife accidentally bump into each other. Something about his New York life meeting his Derry life feels so bizarre. He suppresses the image and attempts to talk Myra out of it but she refuses to listen.

In the end, Eddie introduces Myra to Ben and Bill. She covers her mouth and nose throughout the introduction like Ben and Bill have some deadly virus or something. It infuriates Eddie a little bit but he doesn’t say anything.

She gushes a little bit when he recognizes Bill, saying she’s a fan and wants him to sign one of her books. Bill smiles awkwardly, probably because he’s ambushed in an unusual state, which is all sweaty and grimy from renovating a bathroom. Still, he promises to sign her books when he’s all fresh and dandy.

After apologizing to Bill behind Myra’s back, he drives Myra to the townhouse, convincing her she’s tired from the trip. She clearly isn’t but Eddie needs his peace of mind so he sweet-talked her into going. He drives back to the house to finish cleaning for the day.

“So,” Richie wraps his garbage bag with a zip tie. “I’m guessing little Miss New Yorker is here to stay?”

“Don’t worry about her,” he says, placing his mom’s salvageable angel figurines in a basket. “I’ll convince her to go home tomorrow.”

“Alrighty then. Whatever you say, boss.”

“Don’t call me that. I’m not your boss.”

Richie stands up and hauls the garbage bags to his shoulders, “Okay, I’m done. I’m gonna bring these bags outside then I’m off to make some cash.”

“Do you even have work? I see you here every day.”

“No, I just go to my bathroom, shower in cold water, then puke diamonds which I sell online or pawn. Of fucking course I have a job, I told Myra earlier.” He goes down the stairs. A few moments later Eddie hears him yell from the bottom steps, “You should listen! I start at 11 PM!”

Eddie watches Richie leave from the broken window.

\----

Myra drags him out for dinner, but since she doesn’t know any place where they could eat, they end up in Stan’s restaurant. He introduces Myra to Patty then mentally tells himself to never let Myra meet his other friends anymore. It is definitely too weird to see his New York colleagues interact with his Derry friends. Not that he’s gatekeeping his friends from other people, he just doesn’t want Myra to meet them.

She’s rambling about something job related that Eddie half-listens to when she asks, “You’re going to sell the house after, right?”

“Hm? Yeah, of course.” He replies, chewing his food slowly.

“That’s good to hear. I don’t want to live in a rural town in Maine.”

“Why would you stay in a strange town? You don’t even know your friend’s friend.”

“Oh, that’s not—” Eddie’s phone starts to ring.

He holds his finger up, gesturing for her to pause, which she did, and answers his phone. “Edward Kaspbrak speaking,”

“Eddie, you haven’t given me any updates today. What’s going on do you need me to come up there?” Sandra says quickly.

Eddie looks at Myra who looks back at him intently. He excuses himself and goes out.

“Sandra, did you know Myra’s in Maine? he asks accusingly.

“What? No! We just met the other day. I told her about your arm. Why, is she there? Holy shit she’s there, isn’t she? Kylie! Myra’s in Derry!” Eddie hears a muffled ‘what’ in the background then sounds of someone running and bumping onto something. “You’re on speaker. Holy shit Myra’s in Derry?!”

“Yes, she got here this afternoon! How did she even get the address?” he’s pacing back and forth like he’s on hostage negotiation.

“I don’t know! Maybe she googled it? Can you google someone’s address babe?” She asks Kylie.

“No, I don’t think so. Maybe she called the PD?” Kylie says.

“Yeah, maybe that. Is she gonna stay long? Holy shit this is so wild!”

“Wild, my ass. It’s your fault she’s here because you couldn’t keep your mouth shut.”

“What can I say? She’s a part of Kylie’s circle,” Eddie hears a _she’s not my friend!_ in the background, “I can’t just ignore her when she walks straight to me asking about you.”

“You literally could! You literally could tell her I was in Arizona, or freaking Quebec, I don’t care!”

“Yeah yeah, next time. But for now please just look out for her. Just until she goes home. I promise I’ll divert her attention from you next time.”

“Please.” He says with a sigh. “We’re having dinner now actually. I was almost about to ask her to go home when you called.”

“Yikes. Better get to it then. Talk to you tomorrow, little spaghetti. Is that right? That’s what Richie called you when you were kids, right? Hah! Spaghetti.” She laughs.

“Ha, fuckin’ ha. Bye. Bye, Kylie! You can still divorce my sister!”

“Not gonna happen!” Kylie calls out before he drops the call.

Eddie goes back to his table with Myra and continues the conversation with her, subtly asking her plans when she goes home.

“Why, Eddie? Are you going to come with me?”

“Hm? Obviously not since I still need to help them with the house. Ben and Bill have been doing so much, the least I could do is stay and help as much as I could with my hand.”

“Oh you poor thing,” he coos.

“I’m fine, Marty. No need to pity me. The cast will come off in 4 weeks.” he says. His voice flat.

“That’s still a long time,”

“Not that long. So when are you going back home?”

“Oh no, Eddie, with your current condition I’m definitely staying,” she sips her water.

“Myra, I’m injured, not invalid. I can take care of myself and I have friends to rely on. Even Sandra says I’m okay.”

“Eddie, your friends don’t know you like I do. And you’ve only been with them for what, two months? I’ve known you for 8 years. I know more about you than they are.”

Eddie stabs his beans then drops his knife and fork altogether, “Myra, I’m fine. How many times do I have to tell you I’m fine? I just broke my fucking arm, not my spine. I can do shit on my own, okay. I can take care of myself.” He does a chopping motion with his hands.

“Don’t swear at me, Eddie. I’m just trying to help,”

“But you’re not!” Eddie realizes he’s starting to yell. He looks around, making sure nobody is looking at them, and hisses, “You’re not listening to me!”

“I am listening to you!” she hisses back, “I just want to be here for you!”

Eddie massages his temples, “Okay, fine. You can do whatever you want. But don’t expect me to stop working in the house because I won’t.”

They resume eating in silence, with Eddie huffing a breath every now and then. He doesn’t finish his meal.

He pays for their food (he still has his manners, thank you very much) and kisses Patty’s cheek goodbye. They drive back to the townhouse still in silence. Eddie kisses Myra’s cheek goodnight and goes back to his room.

He doesn’t like getting worked up like this but sometimes Myra makes it so difficult not to be exasperated at her.

He takes a hot shower, careful not to get his cast wet, and changes into his pajamas. He’s about to retire for the day when he remembers Richie’s show. It’s almost 11 PM so he hurriedly downloads a radio app and spends a few minutes searching for the right frequency. He finds it when he hears Richie’s voice welcoming his listeners.

_“…To ‘Whispers of the Heart’, the show where you tell me and the listeners the stuff that you want to tell to anyone and everyone. I’m your host Trashmouth Tozier and I will be with you from 11 to 1 AM. Before we start the show, let’s have a warm up first, shall we? Here’s Heroes by David Bowie.”_

The soothing voice of David Bowie fills Eddie’s earphones. This is one of his and Richie’s favorite songs growing up. He couldn’t help but smile to the memories of them huddling around the radio, trying their hardest not to make any noise while copying it to a cassette tape, then predicting the right time before stopping the tape so they don’t include the DJ’s voice. Good times.

Richie doesn’t talk again until the song fades out properly. Eddie likes to think it’s out of habit from all the times they tried to copy it when they were kids.

_“And we’re back to our regularly scheduled program! Again for people who just tuned in, I’m your host, Trashmouth Tozier welcoming you to another episode of ‘Whispers of the Heart’. We’re opening our line in a few moments so if you want to share anything with us and the listeners, feel free to contact us at 207-217-1049. Tonight, we are going to hear two stories! If you want to ask questions or heckle our caller, do it on Twitter! Use the hashtag WOTH or W-O-T-H for those who can’t spell and I’ll read it to them! Are you ready? 3, 2, 1 and go!”_

Richie thanks their sponsors and reads a few tweets from people greeting their friends or just saying hi to him.

 _“And now we have our caller! Hi!”_ Richie’s clears his throat and talks slow, like a machine, _“You have reached Trashmouth Tozier’s line, please start talking after the beep. BEEP!”_ Eddie winces at the horrible noise Richie makes.

The caller is a man in his mid-20s. He talks about his latent bisexual awakening and how he suppressed his attraction to the same sex when he was still a teenager, and how he doesn’t plan on coming out to her family but wanted to with his friends. He tells the audience that his first sexual experience was a threesome. That earns a laugh (and some jokes) from Richie and some of the listeners as he reads 5 tweets before letting the man continue with her story.

After the man ends his call, an older woman, apparently an avid listener to the show and a doctor (what kind of doctor? Eddie doesn’t know) calls in and gives great advice. She and Richie talk for a while, him telling light-hearted jokes and the doctor tells a few stories of the same kind, then says goodbye. Richie reads some more tweets and before Eddie knows, the show is on another song break.

Richie plays Pictures of You by The Cure.

The song lulls Eddie to sleep, dreaming of a rainy afternoon hanging in Mr. & Mrs. Denbrough’s basement with his friends.

\-----

“Hey, Eds! Hi, Myra.” Richie greets them as they arrive at the house.

Eddie is suddenly conscious of Myra’s arm wrapped around his. He subtly removes it. “Hi, Richie.” He says. Myra greets him as well.

“Ooh, _good_ morning, I take it?” Richie waggles his eyebrows at them.

“Oh no we—” he starts,

“Yes, actually we did.” Myra answers. Eddie quickly looks at her and is genuinely surprised when he sees her blushing. Why is she blushing? They literally didn’t do anything that morning. In fact, she knocked on his door 10 minutes before leaving. He gave her a banana muffin and that’s all.

“Ah… really?” Richie smiles at them… weirdly? Awkwardly? His smile doesn’t seem genuine, more like uncomfortable.

“Are you uncomfortable?” Eddie asks, a smile forming in his face. “You’re actually uncomfortable!”

“I’m not! It’s just weird.”

“You are! Marty, he’s uncomfortable!” He looks at Myra and she actually smiles, even giggles a little.

“I’m not! It’s just we’ve known each other for a long time! It’s like the dam that’s been keeping my innocence together broke and all the information about sex comes crashing down. Like, your parents giving you the _talk_ then immediately you think about how they had sex to have you. It’s… It’s weird.” Richie rambles. He rubs his neck, looking away from them.

“What, is the fact that I have sex makes you feel weird? Grow up, man. We’re in our mid-30s. Of course I’ve had sex.”

“I know you’ve had sex, dumbass. Like I said, it’s just like knowing that your parents bang just to have me. That kind of weird. Whatever, Eds. Shut up. I just haven’t gotten laid in two days.” He goes inside the house. “Maybe I’ll go to a bar later to get lucky!” he yells from inside.

They continue working the second floor. They’re almost done with the whole floor except Eddie’s old room. He told them that he’ll do that one alone since there are only a few stuff inside. It’s mostly untouched; just a few old lamps here and there, some boxes, gnawed-on pieces of paper, animal droppings, stuff like that. It is something Eddie can finish within a day.

Bill and Ben are almost finished the downstairs bathroom. Stanley is outside cutting tiles, preparing for the tiling (Myra met him, goddammit). The next they’ll do is the kitchen. Eddie is determined to help them with this since only the two of them (three when Mike is available) are breaking their backs working. All he’s done for the past 2 weeks is pick up trash, move boxes to the porch, sort things, store them in Stan or Bev’s places, buy food, and drive to Goodwill to donate stuff. For short, he’s abusing his friends’ kindness.

“Guys, I want to do the kitchen.” He announces to Bill and Ben. The two of them stop assembling the pipes for the tub. Stanley, who just came in to place the tiles on the floor, also stops in his tracks.

“Okay?” Ben hesitantly answers. Eddie sees he’s confused.

“You can do it,” Stanley says. “But do you know how to?”

“No, I don’t. That’s why I need help. Please?”

“S-sure, Eddie. We’ll do it w-when your arm’s healed, okay?” Bill says.

“That’ll be for more or less another 4 weeks. That would be too much time wasted.”

“We can do the kitchen after this bathroom, if you want, but you have to take it easy with your arm. We’ll be installing cabinets and they’re pretty heavy.” Ben says.

“You’ve been doing so much, guys. I literally don’t do anything.”

“What’s going on?” Richie interrupts.

“I want to help with the kitchen,” Eddie says.

“Sure, why not? What’s the deal?” Richie asks Bill and Ben. He leans his arm on the door.

“We’ll be putting up some heavy stuff. We’re worried about his arm.” Ben answers.

“Then let him and Stan do the tiles. The two of us can do the cabinets, Bill can do the pipes.”

“What is going on?” Myra appears under Richie’s arm, squeezing her way in the middle of him, Richie, and Stan.

“Eddie wants to do the kitchen,” Stan answers her.

“Eddie are you out of your mind?! You’re injured!” She screams. Richie visibly winced, so is Stan.

“My arm’s fine. It’s been almost 3 weeks since the accident.” Eddie bends his left elbow a couple of times, showing her that it’s fine. “It doesn’t even hurt anymore. It’s just itchy.”

“Still you cannot put stress to it!” Everybody is quiet now, observing their interaction.

“I’m not even going to carry anything heavy. It’s just faster that way. Stan and I would do the counter, Ben and Richie would do the cabinets, and Bill would do the pipes.”

“I’ve b-been doing that quite a lot,” Bill says quietly. Ben faces him and whispers something.

“I just don’t want you to get hurt again, Eddie. What if you’re carrying a huge tile and then you slipped and landed on your arm again? What if your arm doesn’t go back to its original shape after that? Or worse, you could die!” Myra screams worriedly, then sniffs. Is she crying? Is she seriously crying? Good God, he knows what he did to his friends before was shitty, but is _this_ the punishment necessary? “Your sister asked me to take care of you, what would I say to her if you hurt yourself again?”

She’s right, though. That sounds plausible. Falls are the most common construction accident and nearly 6,000 people die from falls each year. That might happen even if he is very careful and he’s with Stan. He could literally die if he’s not careful.

Eddie looks at his friends; Richie looks tense, Stan looks a few seconds away from rolling his eyes, Ben is definitely worried, and Bill seems like he’s just waiting for someone to speak first. He rubs his hands on his face. God, he’s hands are dirty and now all the dust is on his face. He needs to wash his face as soon as possible because adult acne sucks ass.

“Alright, alright. I’ll wait for a few more days before I do the tiles.” He finally relents, just to have Myra stop sobbing.

“Really? You’re doing it for me?” She looks up at him, her eyes practically shining. He’s not doing it for her, he’s doing it for him so he won’t be included in the statistics. It’s for his own peace of mind. He doesn’t want to do it, but she does kind of have a point.

She beams at him and goes on her tiptoes to plant a quick peck on his lips. He doesn’t even have time to react. “Thank you,” she says then walks back to the porch where she was sitting earlier because _it’s too filthy inside, Eddie, I can’t go in_.

“Whoo! Get it, Eds!” Richie cheers weakly. Stan swats his arm.

“Don’t call me that,” he says, hastily subtly rubbing his lips like a 12-year-old who got kissed spontaneously, which he technically was.

\---

_“Good evening, folks. Welcome to Whispers of the Heart the show where you can tell me and the listeners all the stuff you want to tell to anyone and everyone. I am your host, Trashmouth Tozier and you’ll be with me from 11 to 1 AM. A few words from our sponsors before we start.”_

Eddie lies awake in his bed. His dark room illuminated by the orange glow of the streetlight across the street. It should bother him but it doesn’t. Something about it makes him feel protected, like being enveloped in a warm light. He looks at the swaying branches of the tree outside his window. Bare branches, dead from the electric wires it tangled itself into, scratching the glass, knocking. It’s eerie, yet comforting. Reminds him of the tree outside his bedroom window when he used to live there a lifetime ago.

It has been a few hours since he walked Myra to her door and kissed her cheek goodnight. Her expensive perfume still clung to her skin even after a day of spending it under the sun, watering the plants they bought and the grass they plugged in the earth. 

God, he is _exhausted_. Before, his weariness came from the labor of the renovation. They were doing something. Every day they’re a step closer to finishing it. Now, most of his fatigue comes from interacting with Myra.

_“And we’re back! For those who are late, you just missed Stella’s program. It’s my time to shine now, baby! This is Whispers of the Heart where you can tell me and the listeners the stuff you want to tell to anyone and everyone! Get ready those thumbs for dialin’ because we’ll start taking calls after this song! Let’s get old school tonight, ladies and gents! And by old school, I mean the late 2000s. Good times, yeah? Here’s A Little Too Not Over You by David Archuleta.”_

Eddie has heard of the song before but it’s been so long since he listened to it.

He doesn’t want to assume but why does it feel like the song is dedicated to him? Do people still dedicate songs to one another? Do people still request songs in radio stations for other people?

_“Alright! We’re back! Get ready your dialing fingers folks, call us at 207-217-1049 in 3, 2, 1, Go! Wow, that was fast! We have our first caller of the night! Hello, welcome to Whispers of the Heart_ _! What’s your name my good sir or madam?”_

_“Yeah, hi. My name is Jojo.”_

_“How are you, Jojo? Anything interesting to say before we get to your story?”_

_“Ah, I just want to say you’re really cool, man. I’ve been listening to your show since I was a teenager and I watched a couple of your stand ups on Youtube . You’re really funny!”_

_“Aw shucks, man! Thank you! You’re what, in your early 20s now? Aren’t you a tad bit too young listening to this show back then?”_

_“Yeah, I was but it doesn’t matter.”_ The woman, Jojo, laughs.

Richie did stand up? Why doesn’t he know that? He’ll look him up tomorrow.

 _“Well, as long as we don’t get a cease and desist order I guess you youths can listen. Just don’t tell your moms. Or dads. If you know what I mean.”_ Richie makes a crooning voice. _“Alright. What do you want to talk about tonight?”_

_“Oh yeah, it’s about my childhood friend. We used to play a lot as kids. We were neighbors, you see. They moved in when I was around 10, I think.”_

_“Okay, so what did this fella, I’m assuming it’s a fella but feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. What did this fella do?”_ Richie asks, interrupting her.

 _“Right. I wanna tell how it started first if that’s okay? So, I used to play with the neighborhood kids. He went out of their house the first time and just awkwardly stood there on the side looking at us. The other guys pulled him in so he could play with us then after that day he became our friend.”_ Jojo audibly swallows. _“This is getting too difficult to tell, can I just call this friend K?”_

_“Sure, you can even call this dude Poopyhead for all I care.”_

Jojo laughs, _“Good one but I’ll stick with K. Okay, so K is 2 years younger than I am. We keep on playing every single afternoon yadda yadda yadda, then one day, I forgot when it began, but he started hanging out in our house. Like he’d still play occasionally with our other friends but he’d prefer to stay inside our house. Our aunt was living with us that time so whenever he shows up and I’m still in school, she’d let him wait for me inside our property.”_

 _“Wait, so is that strange? Because I used to do that all the fu-freaking time as a kid. I would literally stay in my friend’s house after school until like 7 PM.”_ Richie asks.

_“I don’t know, man. I mean, I wasn’t raised that way. Maybe for some it’s fine but my dad would skin me alive if I stay out longer than 5 o’clock. One time my aunt went door-to-door when I accidentally stayed out until 5:30.”_

_“Yeesh. That’s rough.”_

_“It was. Okay, so there. I would go home, bone-tired from school, then he’d be there, playing with my then-toddler sister. It was fine at first then I got used to it. Yadda yadda yadda days passed, he graduated from waiting for me OUTSIDE the house to INSIDE the house. He’d bring his younger brother, D, then when I get home he’d leave D to play with my sister then K would watch me play in the computer.”_

_“Aw that is so freaking cute!”_

_“I know, right? But kid me was an asshole. BUT I WAS LITERALLY A KID! That’s what kids are! And I digressed, yeah, so months passed, I finally kind of appreciated his presence, also that time my parents, aunt, and his uncle and aunt started teasing us together. We’re kids, holy shit! Oh shit! Oh no! I’m swearing! I’m sorry!”_

Richie cackles hard and Eddie just knows it’s his ‘special’ laugh here he leans back and clutches his stomach with one hand then the other one awkwardly outstretched in front of him. He smiles to himself.

_“It’s fine! It’s fine! We can’t control what the callers are saying, it just applies to us hosts. And whatever, it’s like the middle of the night. Your deceased ancestors won’t cut your tongue out in your sleep._

_“Cool! Ugh, the possibilities. Anyway, yeah, they started teasing us together. I don’t know what’s the deal with his mom but I’ve only seen her once. She was pretty, though. She has glasses and black shoulder-length hair. I think she’s of Asian descent? I don’t know, I don’t really remember her much. I’m rambling, I’m sorry.”_

_“No worries. Continue, madam.”_

Jojo giggles. _“Yeah. Then he started giving us food like a bunch of fresh fish, pastries, shit like that. I was too shy to go out but my aunt forced me to receive them since ‘they’re for me’ or whatever.”_

_“He seems like such a sweet guy.”_

_“He was. Or I guess the person I remember. Anyway, one time he literally spent the new year outside our house. Like, he was outside our house when the countdown started. I was, of course, outside as well. I talked to him, let him pet our cat, threw the cat at him. I remember he was wearing red that time. Now that I think about it, maybe he was part Chinese. Yeah. He only went home when his aunt got mad at him for staying out too late.”_

_“I did that a few times too, you know. There’s nothing better about spending the holidays with your friends.”_

_“Right. Is this story boring? I feel like this story is boring. I’m sorryyy!”_ Jojo says.

_“No, no! You’re fine. This hour is yours, you can talk whatever you want. In fact, let me read to you some of our listeners’ reaction. Okay, twitter user webeardedbearz with a Z says ‘what a cute story I wonder where the story would go’. Another user, buckysass, says ‘if I were the mom of that kid I would get a heart attack all the time’ and ‘is K cute?’ spalila asked. I would say they’re pretty interested. You can tweet your reactions using our hashtag W-O-T-H okay? Keep ‘em coming!”_

_“Phew, I thought my story’s boring. But I’m just gonna go and hurry up. Okay, so, I ended up liking him. I know it’s weird because we’re both kids and I’m 11 years old at this point but still just a kid, but I did like him. A harmless crush, you know? We all got those when we were kids. If someone says they don’t they’re lying.”_

_“Amen! We all had that one.”_

_“Yes! So, one day, like a week passed I noticed that he wasn’t visiting anymore. Just,”_ Eddie hears a snap. _“out of the blue I noticed he wasn’t coming anymore so I asked my aunt. She said ‘they moved away, didn’t you noticed?’ and I was like ‘no, I didn’t’ but holy fuck I was freaking out on the inside! He did not say shit! No one said anything and he didn’t tell anyone!”_

 _“NO! FUCKING! WAY!”_ Richie swears. _“Oh man! Oh man! Oh man! I’m sorry Greg for swearing but holy shit, man!”_

Eddie’s heart quickens. Oh God. Why did this girl’s story have to be like his? This feels terrible. Is this what everybody felt after he left? God, this is so shitty. Eddie feels a bit nauseated. He goes to his mini fridge for a glass of water. He sits on a chair by the table, wanting distance from his phone but not too far for him not to hear Richie’s voice.

_“RIGHT?! This kid, who’s been practically living in our house, disappeared and no one even told me? I thought he was just grounded! He got grounded a bunch of times I couldn’t even count anymore! Like, they had this tall-ass gate and concrete walls around their house so his uncle literally made them a window so he could still talk me because his mom just grounds him so much.”_

_“Jojo, oh man, Jojo. My girl Jojo. God.”_ Richie chuckles. _“I’m gonna interrupt you for a while, okay? Let’s see how our listeners react to what happened._

Richie hums while probably browsing their Twitter mentions. “ _Joni says, ‘what the f-word! Why didn’t he tell Jojo?’. Twitter user ACAB BLM says, ‘what an effing d-word. I can’t effing believe’. Guys, I’m just reading your display names for now, okay? This story is so intense I’m having chills. Jojo Supporter says ‘I can’t believe I’m about to throw hands with an 8-year-old’. Well, K is probably in his 20s now so you can definitely throw hands at him now. Do not punch an 8-year-old guys, I can’t believe I still have to say that. Twitter user Silky says, ‘Trashmouth stop talking we need to hear the rest of Jojo’s story challenge’. Okay, okay. Geez, alright Jojo you can continue.”_

 _“Thanks, guys!”_ Jojo giggles a little. _“So yeah, he left and I didn’t know. You know what’s shittier? K doesn’t know my name. Literally, he doesn’t know my real name! But I know his! Because he showed me his freaking school ID once! I even know his fucking middle name!_

_“So fast forward years later, when I set up a Facebook, I searched for his name. None. It took me a few years to find him because his name is so common. Even at school I know like 3 people in my class who have the same name as him.”_

_“Wow. Okay, sorry for interrupting. Continue.”_

_“No worries. Finally, I found him after a few years. I got excited! I found out they moved to like Asia for a few years then moved back but in like Florida. Also, he got a new brother. I browsed his pictures. There’s this one photo where there were three of them, he captioned ‘brothers’ but I’m not really sure if the youngest looking one is like their brother or if it’s their cousin. I don’t care. I’m curious about his brother D, though. Like, D has brown hair. K has brown hair. In that picture only K has brown hair. So, did D stayed with their mom or what? And they have a new mom now, apparently. And I finally saw their dad. Their dad only visited once when they were still living in their old place but I didn’t see him.”_

_“Cool cool cool. We may never know what happened to D.”_

_“I sent him a friend request and he accepted it. I messaged him after a few days of hyping myself to ask him if he still remembers me. He doesn’t, but he remembers one of our friends. I got kind of offended because I was literally the only girl our circle. It’s kinda like natural to remember the odd one out, right? I guess that’s what happens when you move at least twice a year. Can’t relate. I was born here and never left. I want to go live somewhere though. That night I cried so hard. I think I’ve never cried that hard since. I never dated. I don’t know why I never dated, maybe because I made that the blueprint of what I wanted in a relationship? I don’t know. Someone help me. I probably need therapy.”_

_“We all probably need therapy. Mhm.”_ Richie agrees.

_“I started putting myself out there, though. No use waiting for someone who doesn’t know you anymore, right?”_

_“Right, right. There is definitely no use waiting for someone who has moved on.”_ Richie says. Eddie bites his lip. There’s a twinge deep inside of him.

_“That’s it. That’s my story. I literally haven’t told anyone about that, you know, so I’m not worried anybody would know it’s me. Unless my mom and dad and aunt are listening. If that’s the case, hello guys!”_

_“Do you have anything to add?”_

_“Nah, I’m good. Well, will you play Adele’s When We Were Young? I cried so hard when I first heard that song even though I talked to K like 4 years before her album came out.”_

_“No problem, Jojo. Have a good night!”_

_“Good night, Trashmouth.”_

_“There you have it, folks! Our first story of the night. That was a bit intense, no? Not the usual ones we get in the show but definitely the most extreme in its kind. And you know, puppy love. It never really goes away. Sometimes you see the person you thought you’ve already moved on from then suddenly you get hit with residual feelings. It sucks because you can’t do anything about it. You just take a deep breath and hope you have a good time before they leave again. Here’s Adele with When We Were Young.”_

Eddie pinches the back of his hand so hard it hurt. Better that than letting the tears welling in his eyes fall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to post Chapter 8 maybe tomorrow or on Friday. 
> 
> I'm on [Tumblr](https://haatorii.tumblr.com/ask) if you want to talk!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said Friday and I know it's already Saturday but here it is lol I got distracted a couple of times ☺☺☺ 
> 
> Again, CW for Myra. The Myra here does quite a lot than the Myra in the previous chapter but nothing grave. She does, however, SPOILERS!!!!!! almost attacks Bev. She just screams her head off, really. But don't worry, Bev is safe, nothing bad happens to her, Richie and Ben are there. She's safe. 
> 
> Also, Eddie is kissed a lot in this chapter.
> 
> I will address some things in Chapter 9.

Eddie brings Myra to the house every day, but she doesn’t like to go inside except for some occasions where she feels the need to ‘distract’ him from things. He doesn’t like it but it’s better she disturbs him than his friends, or literally anyone else in town for that matter. If she gets lost he is positive he won’t hear the end of it until the day he dies.

This time, the day Eddie fears the most has finally come.

It is a bit of an exaggeration but it kind of also… not.

. “Eddie!” Beverly gets off her car and waves at him when she sees him from the broken window. He doesn’t hear properly, her voice muffled by the plastic covering. He waves back. When he sees Myra brisk walk to the gate he immediately drops the vacuum and runs down the stairs.

Eddie finds Myra blocking the gate, only opening it so her head would fit. He could see Bev’s feet from between her denim-covered legs.

Bev somehow sees him and calls out to him again, “Eddie!” She says.

Myra turns her head, “Eddie, who is this lady?” She asks. Her eyes wide, her smile too wide.

“It’s Bev. Beverly Marsh. She’s my friend.”

“You didn’t tell me you have a female friend.”

“Are you going to let me in, lady, or what?” He hears Bev say.

“Do you want me to introduce you to Mr. Bowie down at the pharmacy? Do you want me to introduce you to Mrs. Douglas? She was my elementary school teacher but she’s probably retired now.” He opens the gate further, letting Bev in. “I don’t have to introduce you to everyone I know, Marty. Come on, Bev. Bill, Ben, Rich, and Stan are inside.”

Myra slams the gate close, its heavy metal sound echoing in the quiet morning. Eddie rolls his eyes while he put his hand on Bev’s back, guiding her inside. He hears Myra huff a breath behind him.

“I brought pasta,” she says as she turns her head to him, smiling.

“Wow, that looks great!”

“Eddie’s allergic to shellfish,” Myra says out of the blue, clearly meant for Bev to hear.

“Oh don’t worry, honey. It’s only chicken and turkey bacon.” She pinches Eddie’s cheek and gives him a peck then climbs up the porch steps.

Myra huffs another irritated breath so Eddie rushes inside with Bev. He doesn’t want to deal with any of her frustrations.

“Eddie! Eddie!” Myra tries to get his attention, which she does but he wants to eat with Bev and the others.

“Boys I brought lunch!” Bev calls out inside the house.

One by one, Bill, Ben, Stan, and Richie come out from where they’re working and cheer. They all go out to the patio umbrella and Richie prepares the table while Stan gets water and soda from Ben’s cooler. They gather around and start to take their seats. Eddie attempts to sit beside Bev but Myra beats her to it. He looks at Richie, he shrugs and clears the spot so Eddie could sit. He sits beside Eddie.

The food is good, they tell Bev as much. But Myra is unusually quiet. She likes to talk when eating and she usually eats a fair amount but now she only took a little. Whatever, he thinks.

“Mhm, there’s too much salt,” she says a bit loud. “Don’t eat too much, Eddie, you’ll raise your blood pressure.”

The conversation dwindles down. The atmosphere thick with awkwardness. Eddie clenches his ass.

“Err...Bev, are you finished with your latest collection?” Ben asks, breaking the tension. Thank fuck for Ben. Eddie loves Ben.

“Yes! In fact, we already scheduled a photoshoot next week! I’m so excited!” Bev squeals, probably a little too much.

“T-that’s great news, Bev! Who are the m-models?” Bill asks, taking another bite of his pasta.

“Yeah, about that,” she grins at everyone, “Can you all model for me?” she clasps her hands together, like praying they would accept. This is so silly, Eddie thinks, of course they would all agree. He knows he _will_ agree, she helped her and is still helping her, so posing and letting someone take his picture for a whole day is the least he could do for his friend.

Everybody enthusiastically agrees which makes Bev so happy she starts hugging everyone, except for Myra, of course. She looks at her when she gets to Eddie and asks, “Do you want to model too, Myra?”

“No, thank you,” Myra answers sternly, not looking at her. She didn’t elaborate. Bev shrugs and sits back to her chair.

“Stan, can you also ask Patty? I would ask her later too, of course, but please ask her just in case I forget. And you too, Bill, will you ask Mike?”

“Of course,” Stan confirms at the same time Bill says, “Sure.”

“Great! Oh my god, guys, I’m so excited! Kay’s coming to model and supervise. Marcia will take the photos.”

“Marcia Fadden? Wow, she’s a professional photographer now? What was the name of her boyfriend that time? Ga-something,” Eddie says.

“Gordon,” Ben replies.

“Yeah! Gordon P-whatever. What happened to him?”

“Peter Gordon,” provides Stan.

Eddie snaps his fingers, “Yes, him.”

“N-no one knows, actually. M-Marcia doesn’t w-want to talk about it.” Bill says.

“Alright. He was a piece of shit anyway,” Eddie shrugs and they all laugh.

Myra gasps and holds his hand on the table, “Eddie! There is absolutely no need to swear!”

He looks at their hands then slowly at his friends; Bev’s chuckles are dying slowly while she looks at them through her glass, Stan is smirking, clearly holding back a laugh. Ben is still smiling widely but his eyes are trained to their hands, Bill accidentally snorted his drink and is coughing while Stan smooths his back. He couldn’t see Richie who’s sitting on his left.

Eddie clears his throat and gently removes his hand from under Myra’s, disguising it as picking his fork up, “Anyway, what’s your line about, Bev? Or you know,” he gestures with his hand, “It has a theme, right?”

Bev smiles at him, “Yeah. It’s about summer, and it’s unisex so in the shoot you’ll be partnered with someone, I’m still looking for more women. I’m going to ask Mike’s cousins if they could come with us. Those ladies are gorgeous, have you seen the girls already, Eds?” She leans in the table so her view of Eddie isn’t obstructed by Myra.

“No, not yet. I haven’t been to the farm yet.”

“You should go. We should all go next time!” Stan suggests. “It’s been so long since we’ve all been there together.”

They all agree with Stan’s idea. Eddie turns his head to look at Myra, “Do you want to come, Marty?” he asks.

Myra smiles sweetly at him, “I’ll think about it. Thank you for asking me, though.” She kisses him on the corner of his mouth.

He looks at Bev, her eyes wide. Ben sits up straighter, his posture tense. Stan raised an eyebrow.

He gently pushes Myra away and whispers, “Not now, please, Marty.”

Myra purses her lips at him but doesn’t say anything.

Eddie helps Bev clear the plates away while the others return inside to resume their work. “I’m sorry about Myra,” Eddie says to Bev.

“It’s fine. She’s just probably shocked you have a ‘female friend’” she teases.

Eddie groans and rests his head to her shoulder “Ugh, don’t remind me. That was really rude.”

“Nah, she’s alright. You know I’ve heard worse.” She says as she pets Eddie’s hair.

“I’m sorry you had to meet her. I’m intentionally not showing her around so you guys won’t meet her, but you and Stan already did. I’ll do my best to spare Mikey of the agony of meeting her.”

“You can do that but you can’t help it Mike visits to help.”

“Yeah, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed.”

“Whatever makes you feel better, Eds.” She says then plants a quick peck on Eddie’s lips. He blushes and Bev laughs.

Eddie goes inside to wash Bev’s baking dish when he hears a commotion outside. He ignores it at first but it gets significantly louder so he rushes outside. It’s his house after all.

Eddie finds Bev, Myra, Richie, and Ben in the front yard. Richie in between the two ladies, his back on Myra while Ben does the same to Myra. He runs to them, “What is going on?!”

“Why did you kiss him, huh?! You’re trying to seduce him, are you?!” She snarls at Bev.

“Hey, lady would you please stop attacking my friend and fuck off? She didn’t do shit.” Richie says, his hand outstretched at Myra. His other arm wrapped protectively around Bev.

“Let’s talk about this, no need for confrontation, no need to escalate the situation,” says Ben.

Bev’s eyebrows are scrunched, her hands on her hips. Myra keeps pushing Ben off of her, making him bump onto Richie and him onto Bev.

“Myra! What the hell?!” Eddie shouts as he walks closer, his hands in the air. “We literally just finished eating, what is wrong with you?!”

“She kissed you!” Myra points her hand accusingly to Bev.

“Get your finger out of my face!” Bev swats her hand away.

“What’s the big deal?! It was just a kiss!”

“Who the hell kisses their friends in the lips?!”

“I do! We do!” he snaps back, pointing at himself and his friends rapidly. Richie and Ben mumble their agreement. “Bill is even my first kiss, for crying out loud!”

“Mine’s Richie,” Ben tells Myra. Myra makes a face at him.

Myra shakes her head. “Uh-uh. I don’t believe you.”

Eddie’s jaw drops, his heart pounding in his chest from frustration. “Seriously?!”

“I don’t believe you at all, Eddie. Uh-uh, you’re lying. You’re just saying that as an excuse. You’re just saying that to hurt me.” She folds her arms.

“Oh for fuck’s sake!” he walks up to Richie and pulls him down roughly for a kiss. Richie gasps, eyes wide, so he licks his way in Richie’s mouth. He releases him just as fast as he kisses him and moves to Ben. He’s not as tall as Richie but he still has to pull him down so he could kiss him properly. Ben gets over his shock quickly cups Eddie’s jaw to kiss him back.

Eddie pulls back, ending the kiss, to look at Myra. “Do you want me to get Bill and Stan too? Because I would. I’m fucking dying to do it. Go on, fucking dare me.” He bites his lower lip.

Myra is red in the face. “You’re so mean, Eddie!” She storms out of the property sobbing.

Eddie lets her go. He massages his temples with one hand. “Jesus Christ. Bev, I am so sorry she did that to you. I can’t believe she did that to you!”

“It’s alright, Eddie. It’s alright.”

“No, it’s not! She attacked you for no fucking reason!”

“Yes, it’s not alright but I wasn’t hurt. Richie and Ben made sure I wasn’t hurt. I just wasn’t expecting to be yelled at by a smaller woman,” She chuckles as she ties her short hair into a ponytail.

“I’ll tell her to apologize, I swear.” He assures Bev because holy fuck that was embarrassing. He knows Myra can be confrontational but that was too much. That was over the fucking line.

Eddie kisses Bev’s hair and runs after Myra. He finds her on the street walking and clearly lost since she missed a turn two streets ago.

“Myra! Myra!”

“Leave me alone, Eddie.”

“Myra, wait.”

“Go back to your friends. Leave me alone. That’s what you always do right? You leave me alone.” She walks faster.

“That is _so_ unfair, Myra. I did not ask you to come here and you know that! Wait!” He’s jogging to reach her but she’s quite the fast walker when she wants to.

“No! I went here on my own volition because I like you, Eddie! I care about you! You don’t have to ask me to come because I’ll always come when you need me! I’m going back to the townhouse!”

“Jesus Christ,” Eddie mutters to himself. He runs and holds her wrist when he catches up to her. “Myra!”

She shakes his hand off hers. “Let me go!”

“No, I won’t. You have to apologize to Bev,” he sternly.

“I would do no such thing!”

“That is not an option. You attacked her unprovoked!”

“Unprovoked? Unprovoked?! That woman kissed you!” she points at the direction of the house.

“And I told you we do that as kids! I have literally kissed all my fucking friends in the mouth!”

All of a sudden, Myra brushes his hands off harshly and jumps at him and kisses him hard. He holds her hips tight, planting her feet on the concrete so he won’t fall on his ass, instinctively kisses her back.

When he’s sure he won’t fall anymore, Eddie moves his hands to Myra’s shoulders to break the kiss and pushes her away gently.

He rubs his hands on his face. Why is this happening to him? Is this his punishment for being an awful human being?

“Myra,” he says tiredly. He’s so. Fucking. Tired. Tired from work, from Myra, from dealing with his feelings every night, from the renovations. All he wants is a break.

He thought he could take a break from work by going back to Maine but in reality it’s still work added with more complicated feelings. At least he likes his coworkers this time.

Hot air breezes over them, making him feel incredibly sticky and unpleasant.

“Please apologize to Bev, Marty. Please,” He closes his eyes and takes few deep breaths, willing himself not to scream. His hands in a tight fist. He doesn’t like begging but he’d do it for the people important to him.

When he opens his eyes, Myra is looking at him with wide, red-rimmed eyes. His chest hurt from reasons too many to declare.

“I’ll apologize to her, but not today. I need some time to cool my head.” She finally says after staying silent for far too long.

“Okay.”

They continue walking in silence to the townhouse. When they get there, Eddie walks Myra to her room and heads out without saying anything. He walks back to the house, preferring to be alone with his thoughts than ask one of his friends to pick him up.

It takes him about 15 minutes, and when he arrives, Ben goes to hug him. He gives Ben a one-armed hug and goes to Bev. “She said she’ll apologize but not right now.”

Bev nods her head, strands of hair falling from her haphazard ponytail. “Thank you, Eds.” She pulls him down for a hug, “I’m sorry you have to deal with it,” she says.

“You don’t have to be sorry. I’m used to it. Her.” He says then turns to Ben who’s rubbing his back. “Sorry I kissed you.”

Ben smiles at him, “No need to be sorry. It’s nothing new. As you said we did it as kids and truth be told, I kind of missed kissing you.”

Eddie laughs at that. He remembers the time they would play spin the bottle while tipsy from peach schnapps. Oh the countless times he's kissed his friends. They never kissed with tongues, of course. They were way too shy for that, just little pecks. The closest thing to ‘tongue’ that they did was smash lips that would last for 5 seconds. Fun times. He got to do the lip smashing for 5 seconds with Richie. It made him giddy for a week.

_Richie_ _._

Holy shit, Richie.

He stuck his tongue down Richie’s throat not even an hour ago.

“Where’s Richie?” he asks abruptly, lifting his head from the crook of Bev’s shoulder.

“You didn’t see him? He said he’d pick you up.” Ben asks.

Bev’s phone vibrates and she fishes it out from her pocket. “It’s Richie,” she reads the whole message silently. “He said something came up from the hospital and he needs to pick Caleb up from Sandra’s dad.”

“Who’s Caleb?” he asks.

“Oh! I have a picture of him with Richie! Let me show you.” Ben says excitedly. He gets his phone from his pocket, scrolls for a few seconds and shows his phone to Eddie. “Here!”

He borrows Ben’s phone, Bev is on her tiptoes trying to peek. It’s Richie, alright. He’s wearing a sort of neon sky blue button-up with neon pink, yellow, and green frogs printed in it. His arm is wrapped around a boy, around 5 or 6 years old, with large dark curls and glasses, much like what Richie used to wear when they were kids but still different. The boy’s eyesight is probably not as severe as Richie’s. The boy—Caleb—is wearing jeans and a black (galaxy?) shirt with a tiger’s face on it and shooting rainbow lasers from its eyes. On the other side of the boy is a tall brunette woman. Sandy, he recognizes. The nurse from the hospital. His chest feels heavy and stomach churns.

“Look at him he’s so cute!” Bev coos. “He’ll be in first grade this fall and I still can’t believe Richie made him wear that for his preschool graduation.”

Eddie returns the phone to Ben, “Yeah, cute kid! That’s Sandra, right? From the hospital?” He asks, his voice too high in his hears.

“Yep. That’s her.”

“Cool, cool. I’m gonna piss,” he mumbles a quick _excuse me_ then beelines to the almost-finished bathroom.

He locks the door, thank fuck for the new door they ordered and his friends for knowing how to install it, and sits on the new (albeit dusty) toilet.

Fuck! Of course Richie has a family now. How could he miss that?! He has a wife and a fucking kid now! Is Sandy his wife? Does he wear any ring? How could he not notice if he’s wearing a ring or not?! They’ve been working together since the third week of July! It is now fucking August.

He turns the tap on, brownish water quickly clearing so Eddie splashes some water on his face.

“Eddie? Eddie, are you okay?” Bill says from the other side of the door.

“Yeah I’m fine! Just washing my face!” he says. He might have said that too enthusiastically but he does not care.

“Are you s-sure?”

“Yes! I’m probably just dehydrated!”

“Okay. D-drink more water.” Bill reminds him then walks away.

 _Pull yourself together, he’s married._ He tells himself in the mirror. _Suck it up because there is NOTHING you can do. You hear that? NOTHING. Now get out of the bathroom and don’t bother anybody._

A little break might be good for everyone, he thinks, and when he exits the bathroom he tells his friends so. He tells them they’ve all been working too hard and he’s worried that they’ve been neglecting their original jobs for him. They tell him otherwise but Bev interjects and says it’s a good idea. She says Bill still hasn’t touched the final changes his editor made for his book and that Ben has been receiving contracts that he should review. Ben and Bill look like kids who’ve been neglecting their chores and got caught. They all agree to take the weekend off in the end. Stan could stay the whole day with Patty and Eddie could rest his arm some more since he’ll be going back to the hospital on early September to have his cast remove. Eddie says he’ll send a message to the group chat to let everyone know about the arrangement.

Bev looks at him intently the whole time.

\----

Eddie arrives at the library at 4 PM while Myra is back at the townhouse having her afternoon nap. He’s finished with his work so he decided to visit Mike.

“Hey, Eddie! Good to see you here, man!” Mike greets him as he enters the place. There are only a few people in. Mostly the elderly.

“Hi, Mike. Is it okay if I stay here for a while?”

“Sure. I’m going to work if you don’t mind.” Mike shows him a clipboard. Eddie doesn’t know what’s written in it but he nods his head.

He looks at the Derry library. Frankly, it didn’t change much or at least for him. He didn’t spend a lot of time in the library except when doing homework, and even then he would only stay inside as long as he needed too, then he and Richie would be on their way to whatever they decided to do that day. He remembered reading several books about monsters and witchcraft there, though. Once, when they were 14, he and Richie even tried a couple of “spells” from a spellbook they found one day. It involved fresh spring water in a bottle, tape, marker, a couple of strings, shadow of the person, and your freezer.

The book did not indicate what the spell was for so Richie assumed it was for cursing somebody while Eddie believed it was for attracting someone. In the book, it said that the shadow of the person you want to curse (or attract) should “touch” the bottled spring water. So that they did. Richie carefully hid the bottled spring water in the bushes where Bowers and his friends hung out, specifically to the spot where they often see Bowers sitting down. The spot was always under the shade so Eddie didn’t know what the fuck Richie expected.

Since he believed the spell was to attract someone, he made two; one for show and one (secretly) for Richie.

It was easy making Richie stand under his bottled spring water, but when he was on his way home he realized what he did was creepy and kind of manipulative. He freaked out and threw the bottles away. He was on edge days after that, thinking Richie could still be affected by the effects of the spell.

Two weeks later, Richie told him the curse didn’t work. What curse Richie was expecting for Bowers and his gang? He didn’t dare to ask. But he was glad it did not work.

“Do you remember when I fell off that narrow bridge in your farm?” he asks Mike.

“Hm? Oh yeah! We were what, 13 that time? Richie dared you to cross it a couple of times without falling.” Mike continues to type but smiles brightly at his work.

“Yeah, that one. The bastard crossed but didn’t tell me the soil around the other side of the log had loosened.”

“Yeah! And you fell off straight into that canal!”

“That canal filled with cow and poultry shit!” They both laugh at the memory of him drenched in literal shit. Mike is wiping his tears away from laughing too hard. It’s fine if they get a little bit loud, Mike says, Maurice and the other elderly patron don’t mind a little noise.

“I freaked out the whole time that afternoon. Man that was really nasty. I had nightmares about getting an infection for a good week after that.”

“Richie was such a bastard,” Mike says, shaking his head and chuckling a little bit.

“Yeah, he was.”

They fall into a comfortable silence again, with Mike still typing and marking things in his clipboard, and Eddie going to the nearest bookshelf to look at the spines of the books in his line of sight.

Spending time with Mike always feels great. He used to do it all the time when they were kids. When Mike couldn’t come to hang out with them because of his duties at the farm, they would come to him and help him around as much as they could. They would talk while cleaning the barn, while feeding the poultry, while shearing the sheep. Eddie learned quite a lot about handling a farm while hanging out in Hanlon farm.

Hanlon Farm was also a place of refuge when everything became overwhelmingly much for Eddie. When he’s had a bad time at home and none of his friends could be with him for too long, he would go to Mike, borrow a rake, and help him gather food for their animals. Sometimes he would get the eggs, holding his breath as long as he could then running outside when he couldn’t breathe anymore. He did it so many times one day he was surprised he could already hold his breath for 3 minutes. It was the day he started suspecting his asthma was a lie.

The Hanlon household was extremely different than Eddie’s own, too. There’s Mr. and Mrs. Hanlon, Mike’s grandparents, a few of Mike’s uncles, aunts, and cousins. Though most of them leave after the day, they all eat dinner together. It was fun, loud, full of laughter, and, of course, good food. Mrs. Hanlon would usher him out of the kitchen, saying they got it and he should relax since he helped Mike the whole afternoon. He would sit with Mike instead, both of them playing with Mike’s younger cousins. Sometimes it’s him, Ben, and Bill. Or him and Stan. Or the seven of them. Mike’s girl cousins would flock around Bev and she would make them intricate flower crowns and flower bracelets from Ixora and other flowers they could find around the property. Eddie would join sometimes, oftentimes as their mannequin. They would wash their hands thoroughly when the food is ready and they would eat in the living room since there’s no space left at the dinner table for all of them.

He would go home feeling happy and warm and full.

His mom would occasionally guilt-trip him for not eating dinner with her. The words would go from one ear and out the other but would sometimes get him every now and then. It would depend on the day he had, really.

When they were kids, Mike was one of his sources of comfort and he had been his, and when he left there weren’t that many people he felt comfortable with. Now that he’s back, albeit temporarily, he wants to have what they had before. It’s selfish and self-serving and he knows it. But he’s a _selfish_ child, his mom used to say, so he’s owning it.

“Mike,” he says, walking back to his friend’s desk.

“Hm?” Mike replies, eyes not leaving his computer monitor.

“I’m gay.”

It’s the first time he gives a label on it and the first time he tells someone about it. Sure, he’s dated a few girls and guys before, even had sex with them. But he always knew he’s more comfortable dating men. He’s more relaxed, more in his element, unlike with women. Sure, they’re soft, they smell good, and his stomach flips when they smile at him, but he doesn’t like guessing all the time. He hates that stereotype but of the three girls he’d dated, almost all of them expected him to know what they’re thinking and they’d get pissed if he guessed wrong or accidentally ignore them.

Sandra does _not_ like talking about feelings that much so he didn’t bother talking to her into helping him figure it out. She just sends some men and women on his way and leaves him to deal with them. He dated some of them, not for a long time but long enough to make it count.

Mike stops typing. Eddie holds his breath.

_3 minutes._

Mike stands up, the scraping of his chair echoes the library.

_2 minutes._

Eddie looks down at his shoes. Being in this town makes him feel like he’s 14 again.

_1 minute._

Mike hugs him tight. He releases his breath.

“Thank you for telling me, Eddie.” He says. “I love you, man. Nothing will change that.”

Eddie hugs him back, his eyes are starting to well so he mushes his face in Mike’s strong chest. Mike hugs him even tighter.

“Thank you, Mike.” He sniffs. “I love you too. Sorry I ran away.”

“It’s okay, Eddie. You came back, that’s what’s important.”

Eddie laughs and takes a little step back to look at Mike’s face properly, “Funny. Bev said the same thing.”

Mike gives him a quick hug and kisses the top of his head. “Well, she’s right.” Mike looks around the place. “You know what, I don’t think I’m needed here today.”

Eddie looks at him, confused. “What do you mean?”

Mike steps away and goes at the back of the library. Eddie is starting to worry when he comes back a few minutes later. “What’s going on, Mike?”

Mike grabs his messenger bag from under his desk, “I’m done for the day. I told Selina I have an important business to attend.”

“Oh really? Shoot, why didn’t you say something? I could’ve left earlier.”

“No, dummy. You’re my important business. Come on, let’s go to the diner.”

“What about your work? The reason we took a break from the house is so you could all do some work. I’ve been monopolizing all your time.”

“Nonsense. You’re our friend. Come on.”

And so Eddie does.

They order milkshakes, fries, and tortilla chips which they shared. It’s almost dinnertime but he doesn’t care even if it spoils his appetite. What the hell, this could be his dinner. They talk about Eddie’s job, Mike’s job, things that happened while Eddie was away, things that happened to Eddie while _he_ was away, the Hanlon farm, Mike’s cousins.

“How’s Jessica, by the way?” he asks, dipping his fries on his milkshake. He did it before, might as well do it again.

“She got married. Two years ago. She and Jason got married at the farm. The others were there too.” Mike shows Eddie some pictures.

“Wow, she looks so beautiful. They all look beautiful.” He zooms in the photo. She’s in the field with Bev and 4 other women. He recognizes them all; Tanya, Caroline, Rachel, Leah. All grown up.

Eddie remembers digging up worms with them, catching bugs, gathering flowers for their flower crown. One time they got chased by three dogs and a turkey because Richie, Eddie, and Tanya teased the bird. The turkey ran in front of the growling dogs so they all followed and chased the six of them. Good thing they managed to climb up a ladder before one of them could get bitten. One of Mike’s aunts rescued them. It was one of Eddie’s most fond memories from the farm.

“She’s actually living in New York. If you want to visit her when you go back.”

“Would she remember me? Do they remember me at all?”

“Well, Tanya would remember you, sure. She asked about you all the time whenever the others visit the farm. Also Leah. Caroline with maybe a few reminders but I’m not really sure with Rachel. She was pretty young when you left.”

“Yeah. How’s your dad?”

“He’s great. He can’t work anymore, obviously, he’s old now, but he oversees the farm with mom so they’re great.”

“That’s really great to hear!”

“Is it okay if I visit sometime? We talked the other day about visiting together but it would be nice to be alone with them first.”

“Yeah, sure, man! You know you’re welcome anytime. They’d be thrilled to see you again!” Mike smiles at him. “I’ll send you Jessica’s address in New York later. You should probably text before visiting her, though. To give her a heads up. Maybe I’ll message her too, that you’re home. She might want to see you.”

“That’d be great! Thanks, Mike.”

“No problem, Eddie.”

They finish their food around 6 PM. The sun will set in a few hours so it’s not that hot anymore.

“Where are you going after this, Eddie?” Mike asks.

“I dunno. Maybe go to Bill’s?”

“You want to bother him next?”

Eddie laughs, “Yes. I haven’t been to his house. I wanna see what a famed author’s house looks like.”

Eddie’s phone goes off. He takes it out from his pocket and sees Myra’s name on the screen. He sighs. Mike looks at him with brows raised, silently asking if everything’s okay. He gives Mike a reassuring smile and excuses himself to take the call.

“Hello,”

“Eddie, where are you? You weren’t in your room. Are you okay? Where are you, I’m going to get you.” She asks frantically.

“I’m okay, Myra. I’m just out with Mike.”

“Who’s Mike? You did not introduce me to any Mike when I went to your house.”

“He wasn’t there when you arrived.”

“I want to meet him. Where are you, Eddie? I have to know who you’re with! What if you fall again?”

“That’s ridiculous. Where would I even fall? I’m not climbing trees or anything.”

“I don’t know! You’re more prone to accidents now that you have a broken arm.”

“What? Where did you even get that?!”

“Just tell me where you are! Why did you leave me alone in this place? You’re the only one I know here!”

Eddie pinches the bridge of his nose and closes his eyes. He says calmly, “Then why did you even come here? You said a friend of a friend lives here? We already had this conversation the other day!”

“What, can’t I be worried about you now? Is it a crime being worried about my _friend_?” she snarls the word like it offended her.

Eddie scrunches his eyebrows together and looks at his phone. Friends? Were they even friends? She’s Kylie’s colleague and they met through a party that Sandra and Kylie bounced but that’s it. They also met a couple of times, accidentally, of course. And they only went out **TWICE** , the first one as a favor for Sandra because Kylie ditched her and the second one because Myra insisted they watch a movie and have dinner. They also text sometimes but it is usually about work. He refers his coworkers to Myra a couple of times. Are they friends? Eddie doesn’t think so, but he keeps his mouth shut.

He takes a deep breath and says, “No need to come here. I’ll go back to the townhouse.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come?”

“No, I’m sure, Marty.”

“Okay, I’ll see you in a bit.” Myra ends the call.

Eddie puts his phone back in his pocket and looks at Mike, “Sorry you had to hear that.”

“Who’s that?”

“Oh, Bill didn’t tell you?” Mike shakes his head. “It’s Myra. She’s friends with my sister-in-law. Sandra told her I got into an accident then two days later she showed up at the house. Freaked me out, to be honest.”

“Oh, her. No, Bill has told me about her. It’s the first time I heard her talk is all. Guess she’s really into you.”

Eddie is taken aback but he laughs, “What? No.”

“She sounds like she’s really worried.”

“Myra’s just like that.”

“That doesn’t sound like ‘normal’ to me. She likes you, trust me. Maybe even more than that. Why else would she kiss you in front of our friends and get upset when Bev kisses you?”

“What? No, that’s crazy. Well if she does, good thing I’m gay, right? And upset is a gross understatement.”

“But does she know that you are?”

The two boys say their goodbyes at the door and go their separate ways; Mike going home and Eddie back to the townhouse.

He is greeted by Myra at the front steps of the place.

“Where have you been?”

“I told you I was out with Mike.”

“Who’s Mike? Where does he live?”

“Again, I told you he’s my friend. Obviously he lives here or I won’t be seeing him that much.”

“Why haven’t I met him?”

He takes a deep breath. Tight-lipped, he rubs his face and says “You don’t have to meet all my friends Marty.”

“Why not? Don’t I have the right to know the people you know? I’ve met all your friends, even that… that woman!”

“Myra, we have literally talked about this. Beverly is my friend. I have kissed all my friends, even you.”

“That was different!”

“And how is that different from kissing Ben?”

“Because you love me and I love you!”

_Oh shit. Mike was right._

Irritation fizzes away from Eddie. She loves him. That’s why she’s been acting stranger than usual. She got jealous when Bev kissed him, that’s why she asked if he’d sell the house after it’s done, that is why she rushed to Maine when she heard Eddie hurt himself. She loves him.

“I think we’re on a misunderstanding,” he says.

“Wow, you think?! Honesty is the—”

“I’m in love with someone else.”

Myra’s eyes widen, tears rapidly forming in her eyes. Her mouth opens as if she wants to say something but can’t.

“Oh. Wow,” She says as she quickly wipes the tears tracking down her cheeks. “Then w-wha- why? Who? When?”

_He’s in love with someone else. He’s still in love with Richie._

“I can’t tell you who it is but I still do. I think I’ve always been, I just forgot. And being here made me remember.”

Myra sobs harder, her cries muffled by her hands on her face. Eddie pulls her in and wraps his arms around her, letting her cry on his chest while he rests his head on her head.

“I’m sorry I can’t love you the way you wanted.” He says softly. “But I really do care about you in a different way.” She mumbles something that he doesn’t understand so he continues talking. “We’re always fighting, yelling. We’re basically on each other’s throats at least twice a week. Even I can tell that’s not healthy. We’ll end up hating each other and I don’t want that. I want us to at least have a civil relationship for Kylie and Sandra.”

Myra’s sobs gradually turn into hiccups which Eddie takes as a sign that she is done crying. He lifts her head and smiles at her. He kisses her forehead and they go inside the townhouse.

Eddie has a feeling that this is the last time they would be in the same place together.

Months from now, when he recalls to this very situation, he realizes out he’s right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to mention it the previous chapter but Richie's program, Whispers of the Heart, was a real radio program in my country. It used to air around the mid-2000s. I only listened to it a couple of times but because there are literally 3 other stations who had the same program. Two of those air in the afternoon. It's kinda like the podcast Beautiful Anonymous but the host could interrupt them to ask questions and shit.
> 
> Another thing, if you know your SPN lore, you'd know the inspiration for Sandy (canon) and Caleb (omc).
> 
> This is Caleb's [link shirt](https://purseking.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/graphic-tee.jpg).
> 
> There are events in this chapter that happened in real life. If you want to guess, you can message me on [Tumblr.](https://haatorii.tumblr.com/ask) lol


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Wednesday, I know.
> 
> Enjoy this chapter, anyway. Or not.

Eddie lies awake in his bed, listening to Richie talk with a caller.

Tonight’s story is not that interesting, truth be told. The caller finished with his story a few minutes ago and is just goofing around with Richie. He and the caller shared a laugh and Eddie finds his thoughts drifting to the time where he and Richie would do the same.

Late-night talks, exchange of horror stories that made Eddie squirm and the hair of his neck stand on end.

The day Sandra left was the longest time they ever stayed up talking. He refused to go out of his room even after his mom started banging his door, ordering him to _go down and eat with your mother, Eddie_. Eddie huddled himself in the corner of his bed, clutching the phone so hard in his hand and pressed the receiver on his ear while Richie distracted him with various voices he had used to entertain anyone who was willing to listen. Richie never left the phone, not even once.

They talked until the golden rays of the early morning sun entered his room. He might have fallen asleep from exhaustion after that, both from crying and staying up late, since he could not remember anything beyond seeing the sunlight in his room. His mother did not come to wake him up for school, either. She probably knew he was too upset to leave the house. 

The steady sound of the dial tone was the only thing he could hear when he pressed the receiver back to his ear when he woke up a couple of hours later. Richie must’ve dropped the call when he had fallen asleep. 

Eddie was surprised to see Richie in his room reading comics when he woke up again that afternoon.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I played hooky with Bev. She’d be here but she had to go somewhere.” Richie said, not lifting his eyes from his comic book. He lifted a foot and rested his heel on the edge of the chair.

“Take your shoes off if you’re going to do that. I don’t want mud on my thigh when I sit there later.”

Richie finally looked at him, pursing his lips. His hair flopped in front of him. He shrugged and toed his shoes off, even removing his socks and flung it to Eddie’s direction.

“Aah! That’s filthy!” Eddie screamed.

“You asked for it,” he grinned.

“I just said remove your shoes!”

“But my feet need airing, baby! It’s all sweaty down there!”

“Ew! What the fuck, Richie you’re gonna stink up my room! If I get athlete’s foot I swear I’m going to kill you.” Eddie grabbed a hanger and used it to push Richie’s socks off the bed.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said then flopped at the edge of Eddie’s bed. He arranged himself so his body was mostly on the bed. Eddie pushed his legs off.

They sat there for a while. Richie, on his side, half his body on the floor, and Eddie, criss-cross apple sauce on his bed, not thinking about anything but still thankful for his best friend’s presence.

They looked at each other when they heard the rumble of Sonia’s car. She’s back from work and that meant it was time for Richie to go. Eddie closed the comic he was reading and Richie heaved a sigh then wore his socks and shoes again. Eddie walked him back to the window. Richie smiled at him before climbing out of the window and onto the thickest branch he could reach. He watched Richie jump off the tree to the other side of their high fence. Richie looked back, smiled at him, and went on his way home.

Eddie wakes up in a jolt. He has fallen asleep. He grabs his phone to look at the time, it’s almost 1 AM. He missed the rest of the show.

_“...and ladies and gentlemen, getting left behind to clean up the mess just sucks, but we have to soldier on and smile through the pain. We can still have fun while doing it though, just like our caller Johnny tonight. This is ‘You Didn’t Have To Go by Grouplove’ and I am Trashmouth Tozier, good night.”_

Eddie listens to the song. He doesn’t recognize it so he reckons it’s a recent one. When the singer starts to sing _you didn’t have to go_ though, Eddie feels like the song is for him. Listening to Richie’s radio show is surely doing things to his ego but he tries to suppress it. Not everything Richie does is about him, for fuck’s sake. He’s allowed to do shit for himself. And he’s literally working. The last caller could’ve requested it.

 _There's a time that we were riding_ _  
_ _Side-by-side, but now I'm wondering_ _  
_ _Where'd the time go?_ _  
_ _You said that young love never dies_ _  
_ _We never got to try_

Eddie’s chest ache.

The sounds of the electrical guitar faded only to be replaced by the sound of a woman humming.

 _Oh I'm laughing on the outside_   
_Crying on the inside_ _  
'Cause I'm so in love with you_

He recognizes the song, his mom used to have a record of this song. He grew up listening to it. Laughing On The Outside, it’s called. Sandra used to play it when their mom wasn’t around and he and Richie were reading comic books in his room.

Eddie drifts back to sleep again, dreaming of hot afternoons and Sandra’s muffled singing from her room.

\----

Eddie’s eyes widen when he sees Myra’s suitcases out of her room. 

“Myra?” he says as he raps his knuckles on the door. He couldn’t help it. “Where are you going?”

“Back to New York,” she says, her voice clipped. She’s checking her purse for something.

“Are you sure?” He doesn’t know why he’s asking. Isn’t this what he's wishing for? Isn’t this what he wanted from the start?

“Yes.” She zips her purse and walks straight past him, grabbing her suitcases in each arm. He tries to grab one from her but she brushes his hand away.

Myra struggles to go down the stairs. Who wouldn’t? She has her purse on her shoulder and two large suitcases on each hand.

She struggles for a bit, and when it’s clear that she cannot do it by herself, he offers his help again. Myra doesn’t look at him but she lets go of one and continues to make her way downstairs.

He arranges the suitcases in the trunk while Myra sits on the passenger side, still not looking at him when he gets in his seat. They drive to the house in silence. He could see Myra from her reflection on the window; her eyes puffy and she isn’t wearing any makeup except for a pink lipstick. He almost feels bad about what he said yesterday, but it needed to be said. 

They were bad together. And if he were not gay, they would still be bad for each other. She is too controlling and he is one stubborn motherfucker. He just wants to be free. He managed to get away from his controlling mother all those years ago, so the last thing he wants is to go back running in the arms of a woman who reminds him of his mother.

It isn’t fair to compare her to Sonia when she never even met the woman, but he could not help but to place them together in the same box.

When they arrive at the house, a Toyota Corolla is waiting at the same spot where Myra got off weeks ago. She immediately gets inside. 

What the hell is going on? Who’s inside?

“Excuse me, man. The lady said I should get her bags from you,” A man, presumably the driver of the Corolla said.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” he asks, confused and irritated. Why would he give Myra’s bags to this stranger?

The man shrugs, “Chill out, man. I’m just the Uber she called.”

Myra stomps out of the gate and grabs Eddie’s keys to open the trunk then pushes the gate open and stomps inside the property. The uber driver then grabs both of her suitcases to put them back to his car.

“Myra, what is going on? Why are you taking an Uber to the airport? I can take you there!” he says, loudly. A few seconds later Myra comes back, her brows furrowed.

“No, I’m good. He can take me to the airport,” she replies, still not looking at him.

“Myra this is ridiculous,” he turns to the guy, “I’m sorry, man. You can go now. I can take her to the airport.”

“No, you stay!” Myra orders the man.

“Myra, I have a car. I can take you there myself. You don’t have to spend so much to get to the airport!”

“You don’t have to pity-drive me to the airport, Eddie. And you don’t have to pretend that you care about me because it is now _clear_ that you don’t.” The driver closes his trunk and looks at the two of them, slowly going back inside his car. “You don’t love me, that’s fine. But stop pretending that you care. Stop keeping my hopes up.” She climbs inside the care and slams the door close. The driver immediately revs up his engine and drives away, leaving Eddie standing on the sidewalk

Eddie grumbles as he locks the gate behind him. He’s already in the property, might as well do some work.

What the fuck did she even do inside? Nobody’s here. If she wanted to apologize to Bev, she should have told him so he could drive her to her house. Eddie stomps his feet too hard on the welcome mat then goes straight to the kitchen. To hell with it. He’s going to start this tomorrow so what harm would it give him if he starts smashing the tiles now, right?

There aren’t any appliances in the kitchen to remove and he does not have to be careful about the cabinets since Ben and Richie are going to change or renovate them. He doesn’t know what they’re going to do with them, but they are going to fix them. 

Eddie grabs protective goggles, respirator, thick work gloves, clawhammer, and a hand sledgehammer from Ben (or Bill’s?) toolbox inside the bathroom. He places a bucket in front of him to catch the broken tiles and then starts breaking the edges.

When the edges are done, he carries the plastic bucket outside to the wheelbarrow for tomorrow’s disposal.

He removes the metal around the edges of the countertop, carefully prying the nails off with the clawhammer. He lets them fall on the floor before picking them up so he will not accidentally poke himself in the eye. He goes out to place them in the wheelbarrow again.

Eddie does not have anything that could remove the tiles faster, though he’s sure there is a tool for that, so he does it the only way he knows; pound it with a sledgehammer. It’s hard and tiring but the smashing helps with his frustration and anxiety so he ignores his strained muscles. As long as he doesn’t abuse his left hand he’s fine.

Eddie clears half the countertop before he realizes his hunger. He fishes his phone out his pocket to look at the time, it is 3:17 PM. Fuck, he has been working for 6 hours straight. He skipped breakfast because of Myra’s little show, and he most certainly forgot to have lunch.

He is starting to get light-headed so he cleans the kitchen as much as he can and removes the gloves, respirator, and protective goggles. He then brings the last batch of broken tiles with him outside and locks up.

He drives around for a while when his hands start to shake. Shit, he needs to eat something fast or else he’ll collapse. He looks around, looking for a restaurant, or even a convenience store. A convenience store, yes! Don and Adrian’s convenience store! He drives faster.

Eddie gets there in record time. He pulls the door open forcefully, making the bell attached to the door ring hard. Don and Adrian quickly look at him when he enters the store, surprised.

“Hi, guys,” he pants.

“Eddie, man.” Don greets and Adrian says “Hi, Eddie.”

He smiles at them sheepishly, “I’m just going to get some things,” he says and rushes to get a sandwich and a bottle of Minute Maid.

He pays and smiles at them again before rushing back to his car again and drives away.

Eddie sighs as he shuts his engine off, leaning his head back to the headrest. He twists the cap off his drink, taking two huge gulps then putting the cap back again. He does not know where he is but he doesn’t care, for now at least.

He peels the plastic covering his sandwich and winces at the number of chemicals and preservatives in his “crab” sandwich. Crabs are expensive. If it is a real crab his sandwich would have cost more than the dollar he paid in Don and Adrian’s store. He takes a bite. It’s good.

He wolfs down the sandwich in less than 3 minutes. It’s not enough, he’s still hungry but his hands do not shake anymore so that’s good.

He scrunches the plastic and the empty plastic bottle and puts them inside another plastic bag from his glove compartment and drives. He easily finds his way and then he’s driving back to the townhouse in no time.

His phone goes off when he arrives at the townhouse. “Edward Kaspbrak speaking,” he says.

“Eddie,” it’s Stan. “Where are you?”

“I just got to the townhouse, why?”

“We’re all having dinner. You can bring Myra,”

“She le-” Stan hangs up. He didn’t even say where.

He heaves a sigh and turns his engine on again. Maybe they’re at Stan’s restaurant.

Sure enough, his friends’ cars are parked in front of the restaurant, even Richie’s car. He goes inside and walks straight to the reserved hall right after Patty assures him everyone is there.

Sandy is on Richie’s left, at the end of the table, he observes, and the only open spot is the one across Richie and Sandy. He gives a wave to everyone and quietly sits on his spot.

“Eddie, where’s Myra?” Ben asks, nodding at Bill to hand Eddie a juice.

“Yeah, where’s our lovely Little Miss New Yorker?” Richie grins at him then at Sandy. He whispers something in her ear.

“So I am seriously the only one who did not meet her? This is ridiculous,” Mike gestures at everyone.

“I don’t think Georgie muh-met her,” Bill says.

“Myra’s such a catch he doesn’t want you stealing her from lil ol’ Eds over here,”

Eddie rolls his eyes but still smiles when he leans over to get a good look at Mike on the other end of the table. “Actually she went home this morning,”

“Why?” Bev asks,

“We got into a fight yesterday and this morning,”

The whole table quiets and Eddie can see some of his friends shooting looks at each other. Richie looks at him then down on his plate then to Sandy.

“Food is here!” Patty announces, barging in the room with her fragrant roast beef. Thank fuck.

“Let me help you with that, Pats,” Stan says as he stands up, taking the food from her.

“Can I borrow a few of you people? I still have a few dishes in the kitchen waiting to be served,” Ben and Eddie stand up to help her.

Honestly, Eddie is just thankful to step away even for a while.

When he and Ben return, the atmosphere is back to normal. Eddie smiles as he sits back down to eat with his friends. His initial discomfort ebbs away as the night progresses and nobody mentions Myra the whole time.

His eyes drift occasionally to Richie and Sandy in front of him. He tells himself it’s just impulse since they’re in front of him but he knows better. They talk to each other in hush voices and Sandy makes a joke every once in a while which makes Richie laugh almost exaggeratedly, hiding his face behind Sandy’s arm as he giggles. Eddie smiles too, out of respect.

Oh right, the rings. Eddie picks up his glass to drink, subtly glancing at their hands perched on the table but only Richie’s left hand is visible. He’s not wearing any. That does not mean shit, though. For all he knows they’re engaged. Maybe they wanted a child first before marrying, see to it that they’re compatible and whatnot? Now that their son is 6 maybe they’re already planning to get married.

“How’s Caleb, by the way?” Ben asks after the laughter dies down. Thank god for his nosey friends.

“He’s doing great,” Richie answers then he looks at Sandy, “Didn’t he do something the other day, you said? That really cute thing you showed me?”

“Oh yeah, he recreated a scene from Lilo & Stitch it was so cute!” Sandy gushes to them. She whips out her phone from her pocket and starts tapping on it. “Look!” She shows it to them. Everybody cranes their neck, even Eddie.

The boy--Caleb, he should stop calling ‘the boy’--placed small boxes and tiny stuffed animals around him. When everything was set, he roared and started putting them in his mouth then spitting them out. He kicked some of the boxes and even stomped on a few.

It was...disturbing? Eddie is not sure if he should use that word to describe what he’s seeing so he opted not to comment. He hasn’t seen the movie but his friends are all smiling and aww-ing so maybe it’s not that bad? Even Stan has an appreciative smile on his face.

Caleb definitely looks like Richie. A brunette Richie, in fact. He couldn’t remember what Richie sounded like when they were 6 but he’s willing to bet that if Caleb stops growling and actually talks, he’d sound like Richie too. 

“I made him clean everything after he was done, don’t worry,” Sandy says as she pockets her phone.

“Yeah, he knows how to clean up after himself,” he directs his attention to Eddie which surprises him, “If you knew him as a kid you’d approve of him. He’s like, just a tad bit less intense than you when it comes to cleanliness, Eds.”

“I’m not _that_ intense. I just like shit to be clean, unlike you. You’re a slob,” he retorts.

“Yeah, yeah. I know. I live in a pigsty and all that,”

“I didn’t say you live in a pigsty, I just said you’re a slob. If you learned how to pick up a few used clothes on your floor and vacuum every now and then you’ll be fine.”

“Your words not mine, Eduardo. Remember when your mom let you sleepover at my place once when we were 15 then never again because you kept sneezing when you came back home?” He starts to giggle. “You screamed, ‘am I in a room or a fucking pigsty?!’”

“Oh oh, I remember that!” Mike says, then turns to Sandy. “Eddie told his mom that we’re all having a sleepover so she’d let him go but we all went home.”

“Yeah, you were all liars and traitors. Stan said you all would sleep at Richie’s house if my mom agrees. Ben, Mike, I expected better from the two of you!” Both of them laugh at Eddie.

“I literally had my change of clothes in my backpack but Bill forced me to go home! My hands were tied! You know how persuasive he was when we were kids!” Ben points at Bill, roaring with laughter.

Bev giggles at that, “I hid his backpack in the bushes.” Ben looks at him disbelievingly. “What? Bill handed me your backpack. What am I gonna do, say no? You said it yourself!”

“It was you this whole time?! I thought that was Richie!”

“I didn’t do shit, Haystack! I was a victim! I naively thought all of you would sleep at my house. I bugged my mom for days so she’d agree! Poor ol’ Maggie,” 

“Ben, what makes you think he fucking changed?! Last week he convinced me to go with him in that creepy ass house in Neibolt!” Mike cackles as he slaps Bill’s back.

“You’re so f-fucking dramatic. You literally just have to s-say no!” Bill nudges Mike with his shoulder, chuckling.

“Since when have you accepted a simple ‘no’? It’s like we need a doctor’s note and a court order before you take our ‘no’,” Patty says, which earns a groan from Bill and cheers and hollers from everyone.

Stan pours himself another drink. “In my defense, Eddie, I never thought Sonia would agree. I only told you that so you would shut up.”

“Of course she would agree. Holy shit, I was a fucking angel for 3 weeks. Hardest thing I’ve fucking done in my life.” Eddie shakes his head and drinks another gulp of his juice.

“You never broke curfew, you were only out two Saturdays, you didn’t copy your assignments from me, Eds you were on fire in that 3 weeks! Sonia was so proud he couldn’t stop talking about you while we’re fucking!” Sandy chokes on her drink and slaps Richie’s arm. She keeps laughing while wiping her face.

“Beep fucking beep, Richie! That is so disgusting! Don’t talk about my dead mother while we’re eating!”

“W-wait, wait! You all remember that time Ben’s whole leg g-got stuck in the mud?” Bill asks everybody and they all exchange ‘ _yeah_ ’s and ‘ _oh my god_ ’s. 

“From the horse!” Patty and Mike scream and Stan guffaws.

“He was sitting there awkwardly waiting for us to pull him out!” Richie wheezes. Sandy laughs heartily.

Bev and Richie are laughing so much there are no sounds coming out, their faces red and wiping stray tears from their eyes. 

He doesn’t remember this. This story probably happened after he left.

“What about that time Bev got left by the train TWICE in New York?!”

A sudden pang of loneliness hits him. 

Sure, his friends have told him countless times that nothing has changed, that they are still friends, but so much has happened. They all have experienced a lot of things without him. They all have this little world where Eddie never existed.

He knows it’s stupid. Of course, they’re still friends! These people are still his childhood friends! They all grew up together, they biked through the same roads, ate the same shitty cafeteria food, swam in the same (germ-infested) quarry, faced the same bullies. But he just, for the love of god, could not help but feel the distance.

_17 years is a long time. What did you expect, they pause their whole lives for you? They stop living just because you ran away?_

Eddie makes a mistake of looking at the people in front of him. Richie and Sandra are leaning back to their chairs, her head is cushioned by his left arm while he absent-mindedly plays with her hair.

_That he waits for you?_

He glances at the table. Mike and Bill playful pushing, Stan and Patty whispering to each other, Ben and Bev roping Bill and Mike in their conversation, and Richie and Sandy, with their little show of domesticity exclusive for Eddie.

That used to be them, he thinks. That used to be Richie’s arm over his shoulders, hand on his hair, having a separate conversation while in the middle of another discussion with their friends.

Eddie excuses himself to go to the toilet where he splashes some water on his face. It eases the tightness in his chest a few notches, enough for him to sit and laugh at the table once more, which he exactly does.

When the night ends, he goes back to the townhouse alone, feeling full but with a gaping hole in his chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took longer than expected but here it is so yay!
> 
>  **CW:** suicidal ideation and attempt(?). Nothing terrible happens since the character is just mentioning the "incident", I promise. It's **NOT GRAPHIC** but if you don't want to read it and want to skip ahead, you should stop reading at **“Eh, you’re alright,”** and jump to **“My parents and I had a good talk,"**
> 
> Also, they drink alcohol. I forgot to include this tag in the previous chapters but from now on I'm going to tag it.
> 
> This chapter is just them doing renovations.

“Eddie, did you do this?” Stan asks, pointing at the cleared countertop. A quarter of the surface is cleared of tiles, albeit there are some pieces left. Eddie might have missed them yesterday when he hurriedly cleared everything.

“Uh… yes?” Eddie smiles awkwardly. He walks closer, picking at the small triangle of broken tile he somehow missed.

“We talked about doing this today,” Stan says sternly. “We specifically agreed to stop working for two days to let everyone, including you, rest.”

“Yeah but I was here yesterday. Seemed kind of stupid to wait when I was already here so I just finished what I could,”

Stan eyes him, clearly forming conclusions in his mind. He doesn’t say anything, instead he crouches down and gets something from the huge ass bag he’s brought. “I borrowed this from my neighbor. It should make the clearing faster.” With that, the issue has been let go.

“What’s it called?”

“Hammer drill.”

“Cool.”

And they go to work.

It’s loud enough that they have to yell to hear each other when using it, but not enough to miss the music blaring throughout the house. 

Bev, Georgie, and Bill are cleaning the gunk, dust, and mud accumulated throughout the whole bathroom when Ben and Bill are still fixing it. Ben and Richie are outside, checking the cabinets for termites, other insects, and rotten wood. They are planning to visit the hardware later or tomorrow to buy some supplies they need. And Mike is under the sink, checking the pipes and clearing the junk they missed weeks before.

When they finish in the toilet, Bev and Georgie move to the upstairs bathroom to get it ready for its makeover, while Bill moves with Mike and they do whatever plumbing magic they do and when they are done the tap water runs clear again. They move upstairs to help Georgie and Bev and maybe start whacking the tiles.

Eddie and Stan clear the rest of the tiles much faster because of the hammer drill. Then Eddie clears the broken tiles and puts them in a bucket, like what he did yesterday. He goes back and forth as Stan breaks his way through the rest of the countertop.

He grabs a wire cutter and Stan, a claw hammer to pry the metal things out around the edges like what Eddie did yesterday. Eddie cuts the chicken wire under the tiles and carefully loads them in his bucket along with the rest of the concrete.

Ben comes back to measure where the overhead cabinets used to sit then goes out again as Eddie leaves to dump the contents of his bucket outside.

Stan uses a pry bar to lift the concrete from the countertop and loads them again in Eddie’s bucket. He removes a particularly large piece of the concrete so he and Eddie move it outside.

With the anthems of their youth playing in the background, everybody is in their own little worlds as they do their tasks; Richie and Ben discussing what they have to buy at the Denbrough’s, Stan and Eddie with their ‘demolition’ work, and Georgie, Bev, Bill, and Mike with whatever it is that they’re doing up there. If Eddie listens hard enough, he could hear the banging and smashing so they are probably breaking tiles as well.

It feels like they are kids again. 

All those summers, spending almost every hour of every day in the quarry or jumping around in the stream, in the Hanlon farm, at the clubhouse.

It’s nice.

Eddie gently removes the caulking by the window while Stan continues to drill the stubborn pieces of concrete. 

“Wait, are we going to change the sink?” Stan asks, turning off the hammer drill.

“What do you think?”

Stan studies the chunk of aluminum beside him, “It’s a sickening shade of yellow now, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, it is. Let’s change it. It will be easy, right? Since it’s just aluminum,”

“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask Bill or Ben.”

He chooses to ask Ben since he’s the closest. 

“Ben, tiled-in sinks are easy to remo--”  _ Oh god. _

Richie is crouching over one of the cabinets, in deep concentration, sweat dripping on the side of his face and hair in a tiny ass ponytail. His arms flex as he turns the wood over to wipe cobwebs and lizard shit.

He looks fucking delectable.

Jesus, his arms.

He coughs involuntarily, then coughs up some more, choking in his own spit so he pounds his chest a couple of times while hacking his lungs out.

“Eds, you okay?”

“Yeah,”  _ cough,  _ “I’m fine.” He clears his throat. Fucking finally. “Where’s Ben?”

“He went to get something. Oh there he is,” he points at Ben who just revealed himself.

“‘Sup, Eddie,”

“Is it easy to remove the sink? I think I want to replace it,”

“It’s a drop-in, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Sure, it’s easy. Just turn off the water supply and do the thing with the pipes and shit. You should ask Bill about it, he knows that stuff more than I do.”

“Alright, thanks.” He gives Ben and Richie a smile then goes back inside.

“What did Ben say?” Stan asks.

“He says it’s easy, but I should ask Bill how to remove the tubes connecting to the sink,” Eddie replies then go on his way to the second floor.

“Bill?”

“Yeah?”

“How do I remove the pipes from the sink?”

“Turn off the w-water supply first then unhook all the plumbing fixtures. It’s pretty easy, just follow the p-pipes and wires. The sink doesn’t have a garbage d-disposal so it’ll be fast. Wait,” he grabs something from his toolbox, “Screw this on top of the exposed pipe. It’s a pipe cover. Or you can put a plastic bag around it then wrap it w-with a rubber band.”

“Got it. Thanks.” He rushes downstairs and tells Stan what Bill said. He goes outside to turn the water supply off then goes back to unhook all the things under the sink while Stan clears and dusts the countertop. Eddie finishes first so he helps Stan. They remove the plywood covering of the countertop, the one under the old tiles, making it bare. 

When everything is finished, he lifts the aluminum sink off easily. He brings it outside and loads it at the back of Ben’s truck. Next, he makes a ramp so he could easily unload the contents of the wheelbarrow on the bed of the truck.

“What do we do next?” Stan asks him when he comes back inside.

“We finally do the counters?” he hesitates. Stan ignores his uncertainty.

“Okay. So what do you want? The traditional tiles, epoxy, concrete, or do you have anything else in mind?”

“I have no idea you could put epoxy on counters so it’s either tiles or concrete,”

“Tiles are fine since there are a lot of designs to choose from and I guess it dries easily? But it depends on your bonding agent. But then you have to look for a matching grout.” Stan looks around the kitchen then continues, “Concrete is modern and you don’t have to choose the perfect tile for it. You just have to put a hardy board all over the counter to be the ‘base’ of the concrete form.”

Stan looks at the bare counters again, “Okay, there are enough supports here. We don’t have to add more. We can go look for hardy boards at the Denbrough’s or at Lowe’s if they don’t have what we need.”

Eddie whistles appreciatively, “How come you know a lot about countertops?”

Stan rolls his eyes and grins, “I renovated the kitchen of the restaurant after Patty and I bought it. I did a lot of research on that one and it paid off. It’s my favorite part of the restaurant.”

“Show off. Let’s go, so we can get back early.”

“Let’s go pick up lunch on the way back.”

“Okay,” he walks up at the foot of the stairs and screams, “Guys, we’re going out. We’ll be back in two hours tops with lunch! You guys want anything?!”

“Okay! Chicken alfredo please!” Georgie screams back.

“I want lasagna!” Bev.

“Same with Bev!” Bill.

“I’ll have pasta carbonara!” Mike.

He writes them all down in the notes app of his phone. Stan is already outside so he jogs back to the back porch to inform Ben and Richie that they’re going out.

“Hey, we’re going out. We’ll be back in more or less two hours. You guys want anything?”

“Can I have some ice cream?”

“Okay. That’s it? No lunch?” 

“You order for me.”

“Your funeral,” Eddie says, “What about you, Ben?”

“I trust Mike so I’ll get what he’s getting and iced latte, please.”

“Okay. We’ll be back in about two hours.”

They drive to Denbrough’s first, with Sam helping them with what they need. They get the mesh, some kind of metal for the form that you can snap right off when the concrete is all dry, rolls of plastic, and a couple of half-inch hardy boards that they’re going to cut to support the weight of the concrete (You don’t want the quarter-inch, it’s too thin, Eddie. We have to buy the half-inch). He doesn’t know where they are going to use the plastic.

Next they go to Lowe’s for the 12 bags of cement, a bunch of bags of bonding agent, the new drop-in sink, some clips for the mesh they bought at the Denbrough’s, press-on backsplash tiles, and a pound of screws.

“Is this everything?” Eddie asks.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Stan says, his hands resting on his hips, eyeing their goods.

“Do we have enough duct tape?”

“I don’t know. Let’s just buy some on the way back.”

“Okay.”

They pay with Sandra’s credit card and load the bags of cement first before the rest, and when it’s clear that the bags of cement are not going to jostle around, they climb up the car and drive away to buy lunch.

The drive back to Derry is at least 30 minutes away and they’ve only been gone for an hour. They still have an hour alone together.

Eddie looks at trees on the side of the road, an endless line of green ahead of them. It’s also quiet, both of them comfortable in the silence that no one dared to shatter with unnecessary noise from the radio.

Once, when they were around 15 and he and Stan were helping out at the Hanlons, he found an abandoned bird at the bottom of a tree. He didn’t know what kind of bird it was so he showed it to Stan.

“I found it on the ground but I couldn’t find its nest,” he said as he showed the bird in his cupped hands.

“Oh no!” He gently took the bird from him.

“What is it?”

“Seriously? It's Maine's state bird!” He gently pets the baby bird who’s screaming.

“Chastising me won’t make me magically know the state bird, Stan. I only know the national bird.”

“It’s the black-capped chickadee,”

“Heh, chickadee. What a funny name. Can I hold him?” 

Stan didn’t say anything but handed him the bird gently. It backed itself in his palm, trying to get warm while still screaming for its mom.

“What are you doing to do with it?” he asked Stan, smiling.

“What do you mean?”

“We’re not going to leave it in here, right? And I can’t bring this bird home, my mom would freak out.”

“We can’t give this bird to Mike, either. They have plenty of animals to take care already, they don’t need another one.” Stan added. He scratched his neck for a second and looked around. “Alright, I’ll take care of it.”

“Woah, really?”

“Yes. Come on, let’s ask Mike if they have a spare box and sawdust. It must be hungry so we need to find food for it too,” 

“What do chickadees eat?”

“Small insects, berries, seeds. A little bit of rotten meat and worms.”

Eddie handed Stan the bird back quickly and shuddered, “I will not hunt small insects for this little bird.”

“Then we can get worms. We’ll follow the chickens, I’m sure they know where to find worms and small cockroaches.”

“Ew. I’m coming with you but I won’t touch any of that,”

“Don’t be so dramatic, I don’t want to touch cockroaches and worms but we can dig around with a stick,”

“That sounds fine. Okay.”

They didn’t find anything so Stan asked Mike’s mom if they could have the smallest berry they have for the bird. Mrs. Hanlon smiled and gave the two of them a handful of strawberries for them to snack on and share with their bird.

They fed it and when it was time to go home, Stan left with a small box with it sleeping inside.

He looks at his friend. Stan looks quite the same, the only sign of aging visible in his face are the few lines around his eyes. He’s also less pale than he used to be as a kid. The ring on his left hand has dulled with age, an obvious indication that it never leaves its place. He smiles at that. Patty is such a lucky woman.

As far as he can remember, Stan only liked one person when they were kids. He doesn’t remember their name anymore but he could remember they had brown hair and kind eyes. Stan asked them to be his date in the homecoming dance (or prom? He can’t remember) and they agreed. They didn’t date but Stan was just fine to leave it as it was.

He wonders what Stan's story is after he’d left. What happened to him at college, how is married life treating him, how he looks so well adjusted. How he simply just let Eddie back in his life without batting an eye. 

“Is there something on my face?” he asks, interrupting Eddie’s thoughts.

“Nothing,” he says. He bites his lip and continues, “I think this is the first time we’ve been alone since I came back.”

“You think?” Stan smiles.

“What happened to you, dude? I mean what’s your story? Why weren’t you upset when you saw me after 17 years?” Eddie tries to liven up his voice. It would be weird if he gets sad all of a sudden.

“What do you mean?” Stan asks, his eyes still on the road but his head is slightly facing his direction.

“Like, what did you do after I left and what you’ve been doing since,”

“I told you what I did and what I’ve been doing when I saw you back at the house the first time,”

“Yes I know but I need more information than that,”

“You mean you want to gossip?”

“...yeah, kind of. It sounds invasive if you put it that way,”

“Eh, you’re alright,” he pauses for a long time, and when Eddie finally thinks he’s not willing to share anymore, he continues “I was in a bad place for a long time.”

Eddie doesn’t say anything, letting Stan talk without any interruptions. Stan turns his head back on the road, “It was a few years after you left. In college. Patty and I were only dating for a few months.” Stan slows down for a red light. “I don’t want to elaborate if it’s okay,”

Eddie nods, “Yeah, sure, it’s okay. And if you don’t want to tell me it’s fine.” He says, his voice small, like talking to a scared animal. He doesn’t know why he’s even doing it. To ease Stan, maybe? But no, he doesn’t know what Stan wants to tell him yet but knowing his friend, he doesn’t want pity, he wants Eddie to understand. The light turns green. 

“No, I want to tell you. Our friends know, so why shouldn’t you? You’re my friend.”

His heart swells. He clears his throat and forces himself to speak in his normal tone. “Okay,”

“I was in so much pressure back then, from my dad, from my professors, from myself. You know how my dad was, right?” He chuckles and Eddie nods. “So, I uh…” he pauses, “Patty found me in the communal bathroom, inside one of the cubicles..”

Eddie’s stomach drops. He doesn’t say anything.

“I didn’t do anything yet but I already took a bunch of aspirin,”

“Stan,” Eddie starts but Stan cuts him off,

“It’s okay, Eddie. It’s been 15 years. I’m not proud that I even thought of doing it but I’m thankful I didn't do it.” Stan looks at the side-view mirror, turns his blinkers on, and makes a left turn. They finally arrive at the strip mall. “Patty helped me through everything, and our friends too, especially Richie. He even flew back home from California and stayed with me until I practically begged Went and Maggie to convince him to go back to LA. I took a semester off and so did he. I know I come off as aloof sometimes when we were younger but I was genuinely thankful that he stayed, even if he annoyed the crap out of me most of the time.” Stan chuckles. “He kept me company when I was having a bad day and Patty couldn’t come even if she wanted to because she had an important exam. He drove me a couple of times to see Patty in school. One time he didn't leave for 5 days straight.”

Eddie laughs, of course Richie would do that. He was Richie’s first friend.

“My parents and I had a good talk, I got the help that I needed and everything’s fine. Well, not everything because it doesn’t really go away, you know? But I’ve never felt that helpless again and I hope I won’t ever again.”

Eddie nods again. They park the car and climb off. He rushes to the driver’s side and hugs Stan tight. He hugs him back. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there. I’m sorry I left and did not look back,” he says, voice thick with emotion.

Stan rubs his shoulders, “It’s okay, you didn’t know. And I’m sure you have a reason why. The important thing is you came back.”

Eddie laughs, “Bev said the same thing,” Stan smiles. “I did have a reason but it was stupid. Bev even said so, and if you know you’d say it’s stupid too.”

Stan chuckles, “Maybe. Let me be the judge of that.”

They walk to a small Italian place. Eddie thanks all the positive forces that the restaurant is almost empty so he and Stan could talk. They order their food (pasta carbonara for Mike and Ben, chicken alfredo for Eddie and Georgie, finocchi gratinati for Stan, lasagna bolognese for Bev and Bill, and spaghetti bolognese for Richie) and sit at the waiting area.

After baring his feelings to Bev and coming out to Mike, Eddie decided that he owed his friends an explanation as to why he left. It’s the least he could do after they welcomed him back with open arms. 

Eddie clears his throat, making Stan look at him “Richie was the reason I left.” He looks down as he fidgets with his phone, trying his best not to meet Stan’s eyes who are boring holes in his face.

He takes a deep breath, holds it in, then releases it “I was in love with Richie when we were kids and I think I’m still--”

“That’s not exactly news,”

He snaps his head up to look at Stan, brows furrowed, “inlovewithhimwhatdoyoumean ‘that’s not exactly news’?!”

“Hold up, you’re still in love with him?” Stan’s eyes widened.

“I ‘think’. The keyword is ‘think’. What do you mean ‘that’s not exactly news’?!” he repeats his question.

“You were never really subtle, at least for me and maybe Bev. I don’t know if the others caught up.”

“Huh,” he finally says, resigned. He quickly recalls all the times in their youth that might have tipped Stan off that he’s in love with their bespectacled mess of a friend. He couldn’t think of any.

“Was I that obvious?”

“Again, you were never subtle. You try to touch him all the time, stop making that face, just little touches when you think nobody’s paying attention. Say for example you push him away from you all the time but always cling to him when we’re in the quarry. You always fuss at him--”

“I fuss at everybody all the time! We fuss at everybody all the time!” he points at his chest and Stan’s with his index finger.

“Stop yelling. Yes we do, but most especially you at him,”

“That’s not true,” Eddie mutters.

Stan rolls his eyes, “You clearly need a few minutes to realize how obvious you were with your feelings as a teenager so why don’t you go ahead and buy whatever the others asked you to buy,” he gently pushes Eddie away. “I saw a convenience store across the street.”

Eddie grumbles as he stands up. He leaves the store and spots a coffee shop in his far left, then the convenience store Stan mentioned. He walks to the coffee shop first. He orders an iced latte and asks the barista if he could pick it up in a few minutes seeing as the coffee shop isn’t that busy, he just has to run in the convenience store real quick. The barista smiles and says it’s okay. He thanks her jogs across the street.

The store is thankfully empty so he walks straight to the freezer and buys Richie’s weird cheese ice cream. He also buys a gallon of Double Dutch for him and his 5 other friends with working tastebuds to share. 

He rushes back to the coffee shop to get Ben’s iced latte. He tips a large amount for the trouble and leaves for Stan.

Eddie finds Stan at the counter checking their orders. He turns around, raises an eyebrow, and jerks his head to the side, silently asking Eddie to open the door for him since he’s carrying a bag full of food. Eddie obliges.

They walk to the car together, quiet. They secure the food behind them and drive away.

“Are you done thinking about it?” Stan asks after a few minutes.

“Yes but I can’t think of anything.”

He laughs, “Don’t stress yourself out. You did it every day so it kind of became the norm.”

“Do you think he noticed?”

“Who, Richie? I would bet my left pinky he didn’t.”

Talking to his friends about the things he had discovered in his 17 years without them is refreshing. It’s nice to finally be ‘seen’, he decides. He still feels like an ass for not being there to support them when they needed it the most but he’s here now and he’s not going to disappear again no matter what happens. 

They drop by Denbrough’s again to buy a couple of rolls of duct tape before going back to the house.

“Guys, that’s enough! Let’s have lunch!” Eddie screams while Stan rounds the house to prepare the table outside, presumably with Ben and Richie.

Slowly, Bill, Mike, Bev, and Georgie descend the stairs and together they all go outside to eat.

Ben is sipping his iced latte and Richie is already eating his ice cream when they get to the back porch.

“Richie, stop that! You’ll ruin your appetite! I bought that for dessert!” Eddie snaps at Richie when he sees him scoop a large chunk of his weird ice cream.

He mistakenly shifts his gaze to Stan who’s looking at him with one raised eyebrow and an amused face.  _ See? You’re fussing at him.  _

“Eds! How can I wait? You got me my favorite cheese ice cream and you ordered me spaghetti! You’re an angel with no wings, Eds!”

“Shut up, dumbass. That’s not my name. Eat your weird ass ice cream later or I’ll toss that away.” Richie shrugs. He takes another scoop and puts the ice cream back in Ben’s cooler. “I don’t know how many packs of sugar you take with your latte so I just grabbed a bunch of sugar packets,” Eddie says to Ben.

“No worries, this is fine. I don’t put more than a scoop anyway.”

They eat while discussing Bev’s photoshoot next week. Mike already contacted his cousins and though only Caroline and Leah are available, they are very much willing to model for her. Stan, as well, tells her that Patty agreed, and to just inform her of the schedule so she could endorse properly to her staff.

She squeals in excitement. “I’m so excited! Everyone I care about in the world will be there!” She looks at Richie, “What about Sandy, Rich? Did you ask her already?”

Richie is busy twirling his fork in his pasta, “Huh? Oh right, she said she’ll ask if she could move her day off on the day of the shoot.”

“It isn’t a bother, right? I already have a dress in mind that would look amazing on her since she’s tall but if she’s busy I could find another one,”

“No, no, it’s fine. She’s pretty excited, actually. Ever since Caleb was born she never really had much time socializing except with her patients and occasionally with us so believe me, you’re doing her a huge favor. She’d probably call in sick if their shift manager doesn’t relent.”

Bev smiles, “What about you, Georgie? Can you and Milly come?”

“Yeah, sure! I already talked to Sam and Calvin. They’re fine manning the place alone again for a day.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll send them something as thanks,”

They couldn’t wash the glasses since Eddie and Stan dismantled the sink, so Ben and Richie volunteered to hose them down since they’re already outside and just take them home to wash them properly. It’s a little disgusting but better than leaving them under the sun.

Bev, Bill, Mike, and Georgie go back upstairs while Stan and Eddie are left outside with Ben and Richie.

Stan retrieves the metal form they bought and cuts it so it would fit the corners while Eddie goes inside to measure the counter and marks the hardy board.

When they’re both done cutting the necessary pieces, Eddie places the hardy board on top of the counter and Stan screws the front and the back form pieces in place. He instructs Eddie to cut the mesh to fit the counter surface. 

“Hold it back from the front edge a little bit so it won’t stick out when we pour the concrete,” Stan reminds him.

“I don’t know what that means but sure,” Eddie answers.

Stan laughs a little, “What I mean is just cut it the size of the hardy board you put in there.”

“Ah, that I could understand.”

When he’s done cutting, Stan helps him to screw the mesh down with the clips so it would stay in place. Stan grabs a duct tape and seals the seams with it. 

“What’s next?” He asks.

“We mix the concrete.”

“And then what?”

“We wait two days for it to dry.”

“That’s it?!” Eddie’s eyes widened.

“Yup.”

“Wow, that’s quick. I thought it would take us at least two days.”

“Nope, it’s pretty quick. It would take us longer if we decided to tile it, though.”

“Good thing we chose concrete.”

“Yeah.” Stan pauses then continues, “Come on, let’s mix the concrete. It’s quite fun.”

They head outside and start mixing the concrete, gradually adding water as they add more cement and bonding agent.

When they have a bucket full of concrete, Eddie heads inside and starts pouring, careful not to waste anything. He uses a metal trowel to push the concrete into the corners and spread it evenly.

He goes outside when he’s done. “Stan, do we have something bigger and longer to spread the concrete evenly?”

Richie snickers behind Stan, “I have something bigger and longer that you can use.” He says as he waggles his eyebrows.

“Really? A dick joke? Don’t be disgusting, Richie.”

“What? You asked for it. The opportunity is ‘right there’, I can’t just pass it. You know me,”

_ Apparently not. _

Stan turns his head to Richie, “Focus on what you’re doing, Richie. You’re using a power tool, you don’t want to accidentally sand your fingers off.” He looks back at him. “There’s a screed inside the hammer drill’s bag,”

“I have a hammer drill inside my bag,” Richie mutters. Stan sticks a gloved hand inside the bucket of concrete that he’s mixing and flicks it at Richie. He jumps and runs away. “Hey!”

“There’s a screed inside the hammer drill’s bag, you can use it to level the concrete.”

“Thanks,” he says and goes back inside.

He finds the screed and levels the concrete, then he goes out again to grab another bucket from Stan and repeats the process until the countertop is fully covered with it.

“I’m done. What do I do next?” He asks Stan who’s spraying the bucket with water, clearing all the concrete around the bucket. 

“Smooth the surface with magnesium float,”

“What does that look like?”

“It’s a magnesium board with a handle on top. It’s inside the bag,”

“Okay,” he says again and goes back, looking for the thing.

Stan goes back inside and demonstrates how to do it properly. He leaves Eddie alone when he finally gets it and goes up the stairs, presumably to help with whatever he could.

Eddie leaves the countertop alone after he is done with the magnesium board. Stan said they have to wait for when the concrete gets a bit harder to do the next step. That could take hours so he leaves it and goes outside with Ben and Richie.

“Fancy seeing you here, Mr. McFancy Pants,” Richie greets.

“You don’t make any lick of sense, Rich,” He says to Richie. “What are we doing, Ben?”

“Hm? The cabinets are still pretty sturdy so we don’t have to change anything except for the hinges,”

“Oh yeah. I think these are really old,” he runs his finger on the side of the cabinet, wood dust catching in his fingers. “You guys used respirators, right?”

“Yeah,” Ben confirms.

“W-what? We have to use respirators?” Richie’s voice wavers.

“Did you or did you not use a respirator?!”

“I don’t know what--”

“Oh my fucking god, Richie, do you want to die?!”

“Well, I don’t but--”

“You have to fucking use respirators every fucking time you work with dust around! Do you want to get cancer? Oh my god, you’re going to get cancer! You’re going to get a fucking nasal cavity and paranasal sinus cancer! Fuck! You’re not a kid anymore! You have fucking Caleb and Sandy! Don’t be so fucking careless!” He throws a respirator in his direction and starts fumbling with his phone, googling for remedy.

Richie snickers then start to laugh until he’s practically howling. Eddie looks at Ben and sees that he’s starting to laugh as well. “What the fuck are you laughing at?!”

“You’re so dramatic, Eds,” Ben laughs.

“Excuse me for being concern about your fucking lungs. Fine, fuck your lungs. See if I care if you get cancer,” he yells.

“I’m fucking with you, Spageds. Of fucking course I’d wear a respirator. Haystack here made sure I wear one,” he points at Ben.

“Safety first on the job site, Eddie.”

“Fuck both of you,” He storms back inside.

Eddie climbs up the stairs and sees the rest sitting in a circle, drinking water and talking. 

“Hey, Eds,” Bev greets, he raises her glass at him, half-full of water. He takes it and gulps the entirety of it.

“Thanks,” he says as he gives it back to her. She refills it.

“Are you done?” Eddie asks.

“Yep. We just have to install the tub tomorrow and it’s all done.” Mike says.

“Just tell me what time you’ll buy the stuff tomorrow so I could give you Sandra’s credit card, okay?”

“Sure,”

“Why don’t you come with us tomorrow? You’re almost done with the kitchen, right?” Bev asks.

“Yeah, we’re just waiting for it to dry a little bit so we could smoothen it up with a steel trowel,” Stan answers for him because it’s obvious he has no idea what to tell Bev.

“So you can choose the bathtub,” Bill suggests.

“I don’t really know much about designs,” Eddie admits.

“That’s why we’ll be there to help you choose!” she cheerfully adds.

“I think Ben and Richie will need some wood oil or a varnish, I don’t know. Also, a couple of new hinges for the cabinets, and new paint for it to match the kitchen,” Stan informs them.

“Nice. So it’s decided, we’re going t-to have a road trip tomorrow!”

“Alright, I’ll tell the boys!” Stan stands up and hurriedly goes to where Ben and Richie are.

“Wanna come tomorrow, Georgie?” Bev inquires, getting her glass back from Eddie and filling it up with water. Eddie debates with himself whether to sit on the floor with them or awkwardly keep standing over them. He sits, making sure to blow on the surface before doing so.

“Aw Bev, I wish I could, but I need to make up with the boys so they won’t get mad at me when I leave them again next week for the shoot.” He straightens his back and jerks his head to the left, cracking it. He groans.

“Eugh,” Eddie winces, “Won’t that pinch the nerves on your neck if you did it wrong?”

“I guess. But I don’t do it often so I’m fine.” Georgie assures him. He doesn’t feel satisfied with his answer.

It is already 6 PM when Stan informs him that the concrete has hardened up a little bit so it’s safe to proceed. Stan gives his steel trowel to Eddie and he borrows one from Ben (he practically brought the entirety of his tool shed).

“Okay, this is what we’re going to do,” he grabs a spray bottle and two rags. He gives one to Eddie. “First, we have to spray water on the trowel so it won’t stick to the surface and pull the concrete up. Make sure you angle it so it won’t dig in the corners. Then, gently run it over the surface.” He demonstrates it with intense concentration in his face. “Did you get it?”

“Yeah, pretty sure I get it.” Eddie says.

“Uh-huh. I’ll do this side so we can finish fast.”

“Sure.”

They work silently side-by-side and true enough they finish in less than an hour, the sun is a wonderful yellow-orange hue in the sky.

They both grab the rolls of plastic and duct tape and he follows as Stan starts to tape the edges of the plastic on the wall. “We have to cover them with plastic so it won’t dry too fast, which prevents small cracks and whatnot.” Stan says. Eddie just nods and does the same with his side of the countertop.

The 8 of them leave the house around 8 PM, the sun already starting to set in the horizon, painting the sky with purples, pinks, and oranges. Eddie feels full with wonder and satisfaction and affection for his friends. 

He invites everyone for dinner and drinks but most of them politely decline, Richie stating that his shift in the station starts in a few hours and he still has to shower, Bill, Mike, and Georgie saying Milly prepared dinner, and Stan stating his in-laws are in town. Eddie hugs them all goodbye with the exception of Richie who only blows him a kiss before hurriedly driving away.

Bev talks him out of going back to the townhouse in lieu of having dinner in Ben’s house, which he agrees since he hasn’t been in Ben’s house yet.

They drive separately, with him following Ben and Bev as he’s not entirely sure where exactly Ben's house is.

He follows them in an opening, enough for a car to pass through, and drives straight until they stop in front of a bungalow. It is painted deep brown with huge glass windows. The sun has set enough that he couldn’t see well past the house, but not dark enough that he stumbles in his step when he gets out of his car.

Ben turns on his porch lights, bright orange light illuminating everything it reaches.

“Wow, Ben, your house is gorgeous!” he gasps,

“Right?!” Bev agrees, “I had to fight him for a little bit to use this design instead of the other one he planned on building.”

“If I were shitting money I’d buy that other plan from you. It doesn’t matter that I haven’t seen it yet.”

“Shut up, Eddie,” Ben chuckles, clearly embarrassed. “Come on, let’s go inside. I don’t want to get eaten by mosquitos.”

The inside of the house is even more incredible in Eddie’s opinion. The floor and ceiling, which slopes down, seem to be made of the same material, vinyl, if Eddie’s guess is correct, and the walls are all painted white. His couch and tables are all cream with a few black ones for emphasis, and it is  _ extremely _ clean, which he couldn’t help but point out.

“Your house is extremely tidy, Ben. Do you have cleaning services?”

“Yeah, because sometimes I get overwhelmed by work I don’t have time to clean anymore. And when I do have the time I don’t know where to start.”

“You have to give me their contact details. Do they have a New York branch?”

“That I do not know.”

Bev gives him a short tour of the house while Ben prepares a simple dish for them to share. It’s really a beautiful house. It looks bigger than the outside but it is, by no means, small. Just the right amount of space for someone who always has company around and Bev says that it is one of the reasons why he convinced Ben to build this house. 

“What are you making, Ben?” He asks when they get to the kitchen. It is a gorgeous kitchen. It’s bright and has large windows to allow the natural light to come in. Though if someone gets scared quite easily, they might find it alarming since the window overlooks a small creek. The creeps and bears that might roam the property at night could easily spy on the people inside. Eddie shivers to the idea.

“I saw this simple dish the other day in the movie I was watching. Thought I might give it a try.”

“It smells really good,” Bev says appreciatively. She leans over to smell his cooking.

“Thanks, it’s just olive oil, garlic, and chili flakes,”

They watch Ben as he drains the pasta and dumps it on the pan with what seems like a handful of parsley. He pours a few tablespoons of the pasta water and squeezes half a lemon. Eddie offers his help by preparing the table while Bev gets something to drink for the three of them.

Eddie moans. “This is so good!”

“Where did you learn how to make this?!” Bev asks as she shoves another forkful of pasta in her mouth.

“I told you, it’s from a movie. And I stumbled across this youtube video where he made the exact dish from the movie. It’s only got like, 6 ingredients so,” Ben shrugs.

Bev makes another appreciative sound, “Oh Ben, I’m sure the others will love this in the next gathering.”

Ben blushes at her words, “You think so?”

“Yeah, man. For real,” Eddie answers.

The three of them eat until it’s all gone then Bev pours margaritas in their glasses.

They talk mostly about Ben’s job, then the conversation shifts and they’re talking about his job. Eddie explains it as much as he could and when his two friends mostly understand it, he leaves it at that. He doesn’t want to confuse them much further if he explains a little bit more.

Bev looks at her watch, “Oh wow, we’ve been talking for quite some time now, it’s time for Richie’s show.” She stands and walks out of the dining room only to come back with a small clock in her hands.

“It’s already 11?!” Eddie points at the clock in her hands, “What’s that?”

She cocks an eyebrow, “This? It’s an alarm clock that doubles as a radio.”

“Why do you have that? Where did you get that?”

“It was a gag gift from a co-worker. I really have no idea why he gave me that.” Ben says.

“Well I thank him for giving you this. It’s the only way we hear Richie’s show, you see.”

“Why won’t you just download a radio app on your phone? Or look up their Facebook page? Some radio shows have live streaming, yeah?” Eddie asks. Bev gives him a disbelieving look, as well as Ben.

“We haven’t really thought of that,” Ben admits.

“We’re so busy and old our brains just don’t function properly,” Bev sits down and presses something at the back of the clock. It roars to life, shocking Eddie a little bit. Richie is already in the middle of talking.

_ “... next song. Dedicated to all who felt like they could take on whatever the world throws at them. Here’s Long Live by the lovely Taylor Swift who I met once. You know guys, I’m used to being the tallest one in the room except when I’m with one of my friends, hi Mike, but this gorgeous lady almost gave me a good run for my money. She’s what, 5’11? Plus her 3-inch heels. Anyway, here’s her song.” _

Ben and Bev chuckles and the guitar chords started.

It is a good song, Eddie tells himself. It makes him remember his childhood for some reasons. The seven of them, occasionally eight, riding their bikes, feeling like they could take on the world. They get in trouble all the time but they always bounce back stronger than ever.

_ Long live all the mountains we moved _ _  
_ _ I had the time of my life _ _  
_ _ Fighting dragons with you _

He remembers him and Richie, again, on the run from their bullies, seeking refuge in their clubhouse, laughing when they’re certain they have outrun them. He smiles a little, making sure it’s small enough that his friends won’t notice.

_ Can you take a moment _ _  
_ _ Promise me this: _ _  
_ _ That you'll stand by me forever _ _  
_ _ But if God forbid fate should step in _ _  
_ _ And force us into a goodbye _ _  
  
_

How Richie manages to choose songs that feel like someone just threw a coconut in his chest, he might never know.

_  
_ _ If you have children someday _ _  
_ _ When they point to the pictures _ _  
_ _ Please tell them my name _ _  
_ _ Tell them how the crowds went wild _ _  
_ _ Tell them how I hope they shine _ __  
  


Eddie pours himself another glass of Ben’s drink.

Does Richie tell stories about him to Caleb? Does he show him pictures of when they were young? If he meets Caleb, would he know his name? 

His questions remain unanswered, of course.

Eddie downs his drink and listens to the rest of the show with a bittersweet smile in his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah so after this chapter I'm putting this fic on hold maybe for a few months. I won't abandon it and I _might_ update every now and then but it won't have a regular schedule until I finish writing my [other fic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24217864). They have a very different tone, you see, and sometimes I'm still in this crazy high when I finish working on that one but this one is kind of sad so I have to beat my emotions down. The same thing happens when I'm done writing a chapter for this one, I get kind of sad then I have to be giddy to be able to match the tone of the other one.
> 
> Talk to me on [Tumblr](https://haatorii.tumblr.com/ask)?


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang buys tiles and tubs and shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's back!!!!
> 
> I don't think there are any content warnings in this chapter but please tell me if I missed any! Thankss ♥♥

“Are you ready, boys?!” Bev shouts from the passenger seat of Ben’s truck. She taps her door twice to get the attention of Bill who’s in the driver’s seat of his truck. He honks at her in confirmation. Next to him is Mike, then Stan at the backseat. In their truck, however, aside from him, Ben and Bev, is Richie.

“Is it a little crowded? I feel like I’m crowding you guys, lemme just change with Stan and we can go,” Eddie says, attempting to open his side of the door. Richie grabs his arm.

“Don’t be silly, Spaghetti. Wow, that rhymes!” Bev rolls his eyes and Ben smirks from the rear-view mirror. “Just stay put so we can go.”

“Yeah, if we keep changing seats it’ll eat most of our time.” Bev reasons.

“It’s not like they’re in the other town, they’re literally behind us!”

“Aw, come on, Eddie. Just stay here, just like the old times?” She bats her eyelashes at him.

They only went on a road trip TWICE when they werel teenagers. Both times they used Mike’s old truck and they all cramped inside except for Richie who stayed at the bed of the truck, screaming in glee every time Mike stepped on the accelerator. Sure, Eddie once joined him and enjoyed it but that was a long time ago.

“Fine,” he says, resigned. He leans back in his seat and closes his eyes. Richie snickers beside him.

“Whatcha pouting ‘bout, Eds?”

“I’m not pouting,” he replies, still closing his eyes.

“You sure are. Look at that pursed lip, do you even have lips? Dude, your lips are so thin. How do you even whistle? Whatever you’re doing there, buddy, that’s the definition of pouting.”

He finally opens his eyes and looks at him, unimpressed. He turns to Ben, “Can we just go?”

“Yes, finally.” He honks twice, signaling to Bill and then they’re on their way.

Twenty minutes in and Richie is snoring beside him. He grimaces and says, “Literally, how can he already be asleep? We’ve been driving for like twenty minutes!”

“Technically, I’m driving,” Ben says.

“Don’t sass me, Ben. You know what I mean.” he points at him, which he replies with, “Alright,”

“Let him sleep, Eds. You know how late he works every night,” Bev says, looking over her shoulder. 

He scowls at her, “Then he shouldn’t have come with us. Look at him,” Richie snorts beside him. “He snores like a fucking chainsaw. Here, let me show you. Ben, do you have an aux cord?” He fishes his phone out and opens Spotify. He plugs his phone in after Bev gives it to him. He thinks of the loudest song he could think of, Guns N’ Roses’ It’s So Easy, and plays it at a reasonable volume. Loud enough that they have to raise their voices to hear each other, but not enough that it impairs Ben’s driving.

“Jesus Christ that’s loud!” Ben yells.

“I know, right?” He yells back at him.

“How long do we have to listen to this?” Bev shout-asks, gesturing at her ears.

“Just for a bit,” and there it is Richie’s snores. He might have been exaggerating when he said he had a chainsaw-like snore but it certainly is loud. He hears it slightly above the constant guitar strums and pounding of the drums.

Bev’s face lights up when he hears it. “Oh my god! I know Richie’s snores are loud but I never imagined it’s _this_ loud!”

“It’s been a long time since we had our last sleepover and when we do we usually pass out drunk. And Stan goes home no matter what so nobody could really tell.”

Eddie pauses the song and rubs his ear. It’s not popping. “He should really let an ENT physician look at that.” 

He looks at Richie’s sleeping form; head tilted back, mouth open with a little drool in the corner of his mouth, snoring like a loud exhaust pipe, glasses askew. He purses his mouth again and shakes him awake. “Wake up, dumbass.”

“Huh?” He looks at them groggily. He fixes his glasses and wipes his drool. “Are we here already?”

“No, not yet, dipshit. You fell asleep 20 minutes in. We still have like another 20 minutes before we get to Home Depot. And you snore like a fucking bear, you should get that checked.”

Richie looks at him like he just ate a moldy sandwich. “Huh? Oh, that. Yeah, Sandy’s been asking me to go to the doctor ‘bout it.” _Sandy._ Sandy’s been taking care of him, you don’t have to butt in anymore. You should _not_ meddle anymore.

“You should listen to her.”

“Mmkay. I’ll do it on my next day off.” He removes his glasses and rubs his eye.

“Don’t do that, asshole. You’ll ruin your shitty eyes.” He swats his hand away from his eyes.

“Ow,” he rubs his eyes harder.

“I said don’t!” Eddie grabs his two arms, pulling them away from his eyes.

“My glasses, my glasses!” He guffaws while Eddie cranes his neck to look for his discarded glasses. “I’m just kidding! It’s between my thighs.”

“ _Ugh,_ you are such a dick!” Eddie grumbles but he holds Richie’s face in his hands and looks at his eyes. “Now your eyes are all red, fucknuts. You’re going to irritate them!” He looks at Bev who’s looking at them, smiling, “Bev, do you have eye drops?”

“I think I do, lemme check.” She grabs her purse from under her seat and rummages inside. “Aha! Found it. Here you go, Eds.”

He lets go of Richie’s face and takes the eye drops. “Thanks.” He holds Richie’s chin and tips his head back. He opens the cap with one hand and carefully raises it over Richie’s eyes. “Do not move or else I’ll squirt the whole bottle into your eye.”

Richie laughs throatily while holding on to Eddie’s arm like he’s going to have his teeth pulled. “Try me bitch. I’ll just blink them away,”

“Shut up. If you don’t want me poking your eye then stop squirming, I’m trying to concentrate.” He leans in closer then gently squeezes the bottle with his thumb and index finger until a drop is released. “There. Now the other one.”

Eddie squeezes the bottle one more time, making Richie jolt a little. He is wiping the excess liquid flowing down his cheek when he realizes he’s been way too close to Richie. He slowly goes back to his seat, slightly blushing. He catches Ben’s eye in the rear-view mirror which he instantly averts.

“Ugh, thanks Spagheds,” Richie says.

“Don’t call me that. And don’t squeeze shut your eyes too much,”

“Yes, yes.”

“So,” Bev interrupts, “What do you guys need at Home Depot?”

“We only need wood oil, hinges, and some screws. What about you, Eddie?” Ben says.

“We’re done with the kitchen, so I guess just paint.”

“We need a lot for the bathroom; tiles, the tub, new showerhead, a tap, shower curtain, just everything for the bathroom.”

“Okay. So I guess when we get to Home Depot we could scatter and when we’re done, we’ll meet you, Bill, and Mike in the bathroom section.”

“Sounds good. What about you, Eds?”

“I’m okay with it.” He looks at Richie.

“Sure, yeah. Anyway, I’ll be with Haystack here. Wherever he goes, I go. When he jumps, I jump.”

He rolls his eyes and listens to the music Ben plays.

  
  


Bev texts Mike the arrangement so when they get to Home Depot they grouped up and go their separate ways.

“What do you want to paint the kitchen?”

“I honestly have no idea.”

“Hm, let me give you a picture, maybe you can decide after. Your counter is going to be gray. Like, 30-40% gray.”

“Okay, I understand. Maybe we should get white for now? I want to ask Ben and Bev about designs and all since they’re the artistic ones so maybe we could have the paint for last?”

“So you don’t trust me at all in choosing paint for your house?” There’s a slight change in the tone of Stan’s voice, like teasing, even though his facial expression doesn’t change that much.

“You’re so full of shit, Stan. I know what you’re doing.” He smiles at him. Stan chuckles.

“Yeah, better we stick with white first. What about you find inspiration on the internet? Look for designs on Pinterest. I’m sure you can find something that you want in there.”

“Alright,” he fishes his phone out and starts typing keywords. He follows Stan around while Stan picks up what they need. He shows him pictures of various kitchens every now and then and when they finally decide on a kitchen they want, they text the others for their location.

“Hey guys, are you done with what you need?” Mike asks them.

“Yup, we’ve got a bunch of white paint and Eddie wants a little off white for the cabinets so we got this Antique White color. And this sealer for the countertop.”

“Yeah, I still don’t know what color I want the house to be. Sorry, guys.”

“Don’t worry, Eddie. White’s a good color. It’s clean, bright, and simple. Also, it makes the interior look larger than it really is. And you can pair any color with it, we just have to find the one you want.”

“I’m thinking about earth colors? Maybe olive or any of the darker greens? For the whole house, I mean. Not just the kitchen or the bathroom.”

“Yeah, sure. We can work with that.”

  
  


Richie and Ben appear a bit later just as Eddie shows Bev and Bill, then finally Ben, the design he wants for the second bathroom. They get to work after that, looking for the tiles similar to the one Eddie shows them. An hour and a half later, they all walk out with several carts in tow and a receipt that would probably make Sandra pull her hair out but hey, she offered to pay, right?

“We’ll be b-back again when it’s time to change the floorboards and p-paint the whole house, right?”

“Of course. And Sandra’s credit card is still at our disposal so we can do whatever we want, but maybe just not as expensive as the tub. I’m sure she’ll wring my neck if she sees another $2000 for a single item in the bank statement,”

“Sure. Unless you want to buy a french-door fridge, I think y-you don’t have to worry about the prices being too expensive.”

“Let’s eat before we head back! My treat,” Eddie offers.

“Oh no, you don’t. You’ve already spent way too much today, let us take care of the food for once.” Mike counters.

“It’s fine! Let me pay for it!”

“Just pay for it next time, ‘kay?” Richie winks at him. “We got this. Or they got this. I don’t have my wallet in me today.”

“You don’t have yo-- oh my god, what if we accidentally left you behind? How the fuck are you going home, you fucking goldfish?!”

“I have my phone with me so I could call one of you suckers to come pick me up.”

“What if you lost your phone, you cock?! How? How are you gonna get home?!”

“Then I’ll use my dashing good looks to hitch a ride back to Derry. Fucking easy, give me a hard one, Eds!”

“That’s not the fucking point! I bet if your dick isn’t attached to your body you’re going to forget it somewhere.”

“Well good thing it’s attached to me, right?”

“How did we get from offering to puh-pay for food to dicks?” Bill interjects.

“You’re asking as if you don’t know how these two could magically transform any conversation into a stupid argument.”

“R-right, why did I even ask.”

“Okay. Ben and I will take the check today, and you all can fight for the next one.” Bev says triumphantly.

“Bill and I will take the next,” offers Mike.

“Then it’ll be me and Patty,” Stan says, “Following the logic, you two can pay for the food after us, then it will go back to Ben and Bev.”

“Guys that is so not fair! You all are literally doing free labor, let me at least pay for the food!”

“Dude, you pay for everything already! Flipping a house is expensive, Edsters. How much did you, I’m sorry, _Sandra_ pay today?”

“Over $3000,” Eddie purses his lips. He’s losing this battle and he doesn’t like it.

“See that’s an insane amount of money for a single trip and we’re not even done yet. Your friends are fucking loaded, let us pay for the fucking food, Jesus. It’s just food. We’re not offering to buy the house from you.”

“Richie has an excellent point, Eddie.”

Eddie scrunches his eyebrows at them, looking narrowly at Richie. “Fine. But I still don’t like it. I’m bothering you all so I should be paying for everything.”

“You already did that. Now it’s our turn.” Mike says.

“I hate it when you’re all right.”

They drive again to the nearest restaurant they could find that has good food (and a high Yelp review, Richie, you can’t just pick a restaurant for their food. You have to consider the cleanliness of the place, Jesus. I don’t want to get food poisoning from whatever restaurant you pick. Gimme back my phone or I’ll push you out of this truck and you can hitchhike you way back to Derry!). Bev texts Mike when they finally, finally picked a place; a mom ‘n pop diner called Lucy’s.

They pick a circular booth and Richie and Eddie rush to see who gets to sit in the middle (Eddie). Stan rolls his eyes and sits beside Richie. Bev sits beside Eddie and soon they are all seated.

“Guys, you’re almost forty. Stop behaving like you’re children.” Stan scolds them.

“Don’t look at me, it’s Richie. He elbowed me on the way inside and told me if he wins I’d have to drink a milkshake with maple syrup in it.”

“And you believed him?”

“No, I want to be in the middle, that’s all,” Eddie answers as a matter of factly. 

Their waitress, Mandy, comes and takes their orders and after twenty minutes of waiting, their food arrives.

They talk while they eat, mostly about the stuff they’re doing outside of renovations; Stan with his demanding clients from next town, Bill with his latest book now finally on its way to printing, Mike with their new cattle on the farm, Ben with his new designing project for an elderly couple’s retirement home, Bev with her photoshoot, and Eddie with his incompetent co-workers. 

“What about you, Richie? What’s new with you these days?”

“Caleb is officially in first grade!” He announces as he picks up a fry and dunks it on mayonnaise. Eddie grimaced at the sight.

“Wow! Congratulations, man.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“Finally! I was getting worried you both forgot to enroll him.”

“Great!”

“Who’s his homeroom teacher?”

“Did Sandy cry already?”

“No, but I did. His teacher’s name is Dockery. I don’t know her, probably didn’t grow up here. They’re gonna start on the first Monday of September.” He takes a sip of his milkshake then continues, “Thanks guys. I really appreciate your enthusiasm for him. Not gonna lie though, even I don’t believe it sometimes.” Everybody gives a shrug or a sound of agreement leaving Eddie confused because he has no idea what they’re talking about. He doesn’t ask.

They talk and talk and eat some more until they’re all full and Richie can’t move anymore from all the milkshakes he’s consumed the whole time. Ben helped him up and they’re back in the truck in no time, driving back to Derry. It took 15 minutes for Richie to fall asleep this time and it took 80% of Eddie’s willpower not to shake him awake because sleeping when you’re full is bad. But he still has 20% left so he pinches Richie’s side to wake him up. Richie grunts and snorts but doesn’t wake up. He’ll try again in a few minutes.

The drive back to Derry is quiet, pleasant even. Richie doesn’t snore that loud, the air is hot but bearable when they don’t slow down, he’s full, and Bev is playing soft songs from her playlist. It’s a good afternoon.

“Eddie, hey. Honey, wake up, we’re home.”

He groans, and rubs his eyes. They’re in front of the house. “Where’s Bill and the others?”

“They’re on their way, they just bought something,” Bev whispers.

Eddie tries to look around, then he realizes he’s been lying on something. He looks up and sees Richie’s face, soft with sleep, above him. He has been sleeping on Richie’s lap with his hand resting on his arm, making sure Eddie’s comfortable before going back to sleep himself. Like when they were kids

He slowly peels himself off from Richie’s lap and runs his hands down his shirt, smoothing any imaginary wrinkle. He looks at Bev who’s watching him from the rear-view mirror.

“How long have I been sleeping? Where’s Ben?”

“We just got here, don’t worry. You fell asleep a few minutes after you tried to wake him up. He just opened the gate.”

When they get inside, Ben and Bev immediately get off to unload the truck so he’s stuck with waking Richie.

“Richie. Richie, hey,” he shakes his shoulder gently. “Richie. We’re here.” He tries tapping. “Richie!” Nothing. Out of options, he tries pinching him lightly.

“Ugh, what?”

“We’re home,” he says.

Richie slowly blinks. He looks exhausted. 

“Hey, you’re here,” he slurs. Still half asleep, Eddie decides.

“Yeah, we were all out.”

Richie reaches out to run his fingers on Eddie’s jaw. “Miss you so much, Eds,”

“What do you mean? We’ve been inside this truck for hours.”

“Why’d you leave me, Eds? Waited for you, wan’ come to you,”

“Richie, I...” he trails off as tears fall from his face. The fuck?

“Don’ leave me ‘nymore,” he slumps back to his seat, snoring faintly.

Eddie looks around, watching out for Bev and Ben or any of his friends. Finding none, he leans forward, resting his forehead on Ben’s headrest. He wipes his tears away and climbs down the truck.

  
  


The seven of them finish up early.

They put all the things they bought inside the house, prepared the things they are going to do tomorrow, and soon they’re locking the house.

Eddie, not in the mood to socialize after what happened earlier, waves goodbye to his friends and drives back alone. He buys a microwavable meal (and ice cream) from Don and Adrian’s and goes straight to the townhouse. He eats his food, spends 5 hours making a report from his latest client’s portfolio, takes a shower, and spends 45 minutes in bed, wide awake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm on [Tumblr](http://haatorii.tumblr.com/)!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still finishing the second chapter and I'm still going to proofread the hell out of it, so I guess I'm going to post the next chapter probably next week or something. This is only my second attempt in writing a multi-chap fic.
> 
> I gave Eddie a sibling to help him move away from Derry right out of high school so there's no way Sonia could follow him. That sibling would've been Gabriel if this fic is still Destiel.
> 
> This fic's rating and character tags will update as time pass by.
> 
> If you're interested in Solangelo, you can check out my other fics lol
> 
> Tell me what you think!


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